Currently Smoking: Thai Stick.  Y'know, that stuff that's tied to a stick.

Shadowrun 5th Edition is the brand-new, state-of-the-art iteration of the RPG introduced by FASA in 1989, now published by Catalyst.  It gained and retains its popularity from the idea of combining popular fantasy elements like Elves, Trolls and magic with the then-current genre of cyberpunk, in which corporations run the world and ragtag groups of neo-anarchists, gun nuts and people who just can't fit into the wageslave world take shady and usually illegal mercenary jobs because that's their last option for making a living.

Back when this game first came out, that premise was called "science fiction."

Before the Introduction and first chapter, there's one of those pieces of fiction about shadowrunning that SR fans have come to expect.  In fact there are similar pieces heading most chapters, and minor sidebar examples.  I don't even know who reads these anymore.  One thing I noticed in 4th Edition is that the fiction presented some actual style changes to how the setting worked, in particular the more pervasive virtual (augmented) reality.  Compared to the changes between 4th and previous editions, I don't see too much difference between 4th and 5th.  One bit I do notice in the fiction is a lot more "product placement" from the fictional and fact-based corporations that the runners get their gear from.  The rigger isn't just using recon drones, he has Mitsuhama KnowSpheres.  Some of these brand names actually approach cleverness.  For instance one brand of wired reflexes treatment is called the "SpinRad."

The text overall presents a certain theme: Everything has a price.  This may be https://libertyslotscasino.co/">real money casino site like Liberty Slots, but it may be favors, loss of security or one's very soul (or Essence).  The secondary theme is that whatever the price or risks of becoming a shadowrunner, the reward is that you don't have to live your life as a wageslave for the corporations.  You will still end up doing odd jobs for them, but they won't own you.  The style of the narration is again what Shadowrun fans would come to expect ('Prostitution may be the world's oldest profession, but delivery boy has got to be right behind it').

I notice that even compared to 4th Edition, the Life in the Sixth World section of the new corebook doesn't spend much time at all going over how things got from our present (well actually, not OUR present, since "the Awakening" that returned magical power to the world started in 2011 in this history) to the current setting which is approximately 2075.  The premise of this chapter is just to brief the reader on what the current situation is now: Who the major megacorps are, who is in charge of law enforcement (usually a privatized service from a corporation), the basic etiquette for dealing with the guy who hires you for a shadowrun (generically nicknamed 'Mr. Johnson'), what magical or simply nasty diseases you can get, and so on.

The next chapter – or "Section.02" - is Shadowrun Concepts.
Shadowrun has always used d6-based dice pools, though how they're tallied has varied from each edition.  A situation that calls for a dice roll is generally called a test.  The current resolution system is basically at it was in SR4: Most tasks pair an Attribute to a Skill.  (Some common tasks, like recalling a fact from memory, pair two relevant attributes)
Each trait gives you dice equal to its rating.  You roll your total, but each die is only a success ('hit') on a 5 or a 6.  Multiple hits are the threshold of success; a simple task is one hit whereas more difficult tasks require more hits.  By this standard, the number of hits you get over the given threshold are called your net hits and are the measure of how well you did.  

However in this system each 1 on the die can lead to a glitch, which will occur if half of your dice pool rolls up ones.  Note that this may still allow for at least one success, but if a glitch occurs, the character trips, or drops a gun, or some other bad thing happens.  If a glitch occurs with no successes, this is a critical glitch, which "is where the drek hits the fan."  I am not entirely fond of this dice pool system, especially since it's exactly half as easy to roll a 1 as a success on a die, and in my experience with SR4 this made critical glitches not uncommon and standard glitches rather common.  

To complicate things (yet) further, 5th Edition introduces a new element to rolling tests, the concept of limits.  There are Physical, Mental and Social limits based upon attributes (the text mentions that attributes are defined on page 51, but it doesn't mention that the actual formula for deriving limits is on the Final Calculations table for character creation, on page 101).  Basically your limit in a particular category is how many hits you can apply from a particular roll.  In many cases, (such as with weapon Accuracy) a piece of gear may impose its own limits, which replace personal limits.

This chapter also runs through extensions of the basic dice mechanic, for opposed tests, extended tests, repeated tests, and such.  It briefly mentions the concept of combat time (where a Combat Turn is three seconds) but the main rules for that are in the relevant chapter.

The basics of the character are mentioned here: What other games would call a character "race" is here a Metatype, since they're all supposed to be branched from homo sapiens and it's possible to be an African Elf or Japanese Ork, for instance.  The basic metatypes in the corebook are Humans, Dwarfs, Elves, Orks and Trolls.  All characters have certain Attributes: Body, Agility, Reaction, Strength (physical), Willpower, Logic, Intuition, Charisma (mental), the Special Attribute of Essence (which starts at 6 and is reduced by taking implants, which reduces your mystical abilities, and in this edition has certain other effects) and the Special Attribute of Edge, which is basically the "hero points" stat (see below).  If you are magically Awakened you have the Special Attribute of Magic, and if you are a Technomancer you have the Special Attribute of Resonance, reflecting a natural attunement to the Matrix.  Thus not all characters have either Magic or Resonance, and it is not possible to have both.

In addition to briefing on basic PC traits like your Condition Monitor (hit points, basically), how magic works, what cyberware is, and what contacts are (since who you know is a game element that gets played up in Shadowrun more than some other games), Section.02 gives the specifics on how Edge works.  Edge is your luck or "favor of the gods" that allows you to exceed your limits, in this edition literally so.  There are defined uses for Edge, each of which burns one temporary point of Edge attribute, the primary one is Pushing the Limit (add your Edge rating to the roll, which not only allows you to ignore the limit rule but allows you to re-roll any sixes on the dice and count any additional hits towards your total).  You can also re-roll a failed test, mitigate a glitch by one level, modify initiative (see Combat below) or Dead Man's Trigger (when your character is going to bite it before you move, you can spend a remaining action before falling dead or unconscious).  You regain Edge points for various actions or events such as being heroic, achieving "important personal goals" or the less likely "Being particularly brave or smart."  There are also certain events – like escaping certain death – that may require burning a point of Edge, which means it's gone and doesn't come back except by being bought back with experience.

Section.3 is Creating A Shadowrunner.  Shadowrun has always had a rather complex character generation system, because the setting requires options for making various types of magicians, various kinds of tech expert (hacker, rigger and natural technomancer), various kinds of combat monster, both cybered and magical, and even the occasional normal person (if you're really daring).  The kink is that each of these involves a certain specialization and each of those employs a different mechanic.  The person who relies more on natural abilities than magic or augmentation has to focus on the Skill system.  Magic uses a different mechanic.  A technomancer has elements of both the hacker and the magician but is not really either.  The hacker and cyber-samurai rely on cyberware and equipment which cost money, which in game terms is bought with a different pool of starting resources.

Fifth Edition goes back to a priority-based system, similar to most of the editions prior.  In 4th Edition, everything was on a point-buy system, but even those of us who like point-buy systems didn't like SR4, because even though you had 400 points, each Attribute point above 1 (including for Magic) cost 10 of those points, with an extra cost for maxing out.  It got more cumbersome from there.  With SR5, the Priority table crosses five Priorities (A through E) with five columns: Metatype/character race, Attributes, Magic (or Technomancer Resonance), Skills, and Resources (in Japanese 'nuyen').  So for instance picking Priority A on Resources gets 450,000 nuyen and Priority E gets 6000.  This system has its own fiddly bits – like, any Priority on Metatype will let you be Human, but you get a certain number of Special Attribute points depending on where you want that priority to be.  Overall though, the Priority system is probably the best approach for a game like this.  Shadowrun technically doesn't use character classes, but the character creation process naturally leads to a player deciding on some traits over others depending on concept.

Outside the Priority system, characters also start with a base of 25 Karma, which is used up to buy Positive Qualities (advantages) or added to with Negative Qualities (disadvantages) and can also be used as "freebie points" to add on to the traits gained with the Priority system.  It is possible to save Karma for later use with the Character Advancement system after the character is created.  However, other points (for Attributes and Skills, for instance) cannot be saved, and you usually won't have that many.  This may be why the book actually puts buying Qualities a step before buying Skills and Resources, since buying an equal value of positive and negative Qualities gives you that 25 Karma to help fill the gaps.  The ratios for buying those things with Karma during character creation are the same as for buying traits with Karma after play starts, and are on page 103 (conveniently at the end of the character creation system).

As mentioned before, Final Calculations include totaling limits, which uses the formula [Ax2 + B + C]/3.  Physical Limits, for instance, are determined with Strength doubled, plus Body, plus Reaction, the total divided by 3.  So if a character had 4 in each of these attributes, you would have 8 + 4 + 4 = 16, over 3 = 5 1/3, or 5 for the Physical Limit.  Mental Limits are Logic x2 + Intuition + Willpower over 3, while Social Limits are Charisma x2 plus Willpower and Essence over 3.  Thus, the more Essence you lose from augmentations, the more it can limit your Social Skills, due to what the game calls the "uncanny valley effect" of being part machine.  This is at least one good thing about the "limits" concept.  In most Shadowrun editions, losing Essence for implants was all or nothing: Since losing Essence only hurts the abilities of magic-users (and technomancers), a character who wasn't either could lose 5.999 of his 6 Essence and still be totally functional.  This concept at least enforces the idea that there is (or ought to be) an intangible cost for converting one's body.

Oh, and related to all this, they've decided that since Dwarfs and Trolls both need custom-sized equipment, Dwarf characters pay +10% for gear and Trolls pay +50%.  In addition, Troll Lifestyles cost double.  This has usually been part of the rules (except for the Lifestyle doubling), but in 5th Edition, you actually have to factor all this into character creation when buying stuff with your Resources Priority.  Including cyber and bioware.  Thus, the examples of character creation include a human technomancer, a troll street samurai (or as the game defines it, 'an artist of pain') and an elf mystic adept (an Awakened character who splits her Magic points between spellcasting and internal 'Adept' powers).  Each is followed step by step until each character is given a complete sheet at the end of the chapter.  The processes are just as layered and involved as you might expect by now.

The section concludes with illustrated examples of complete Shadowrun characters for use "out of the box."  In keeping with tradition, the text doesn't always match the illustration (the Human Combat Mage is presented as a Troll on the picture).

Section.4 is Skills.  Skills in principle are simple enough: Again, you pair a given Skill (like Unarmed Combat) with the appropriate Attribute (in this case, Agility) and roll the total rating in dice for a test.  In operation they're a bit more complicated and selecting them during character creation and afterward is a lot more complicated.  
In the Priority system, the higher priorities list two numbers under Skills: the first is the number of individual skill points that you apply on a one-for-one basis, and the second number is the number of points you apply to Skill Groups.   Firearms at rating 1, for instance, means you have 1 in Automatics, Longarms and Pistols.  You can also spend 1 point to get a specialization in a certain skill, granting +2 dice with a test with that category – for instance if you have Pistols 4 (4 points in character creation) you can spend an additional point to specialize with the Ares Predator V and the specialization gives you +2 with that particular weapon.  The problem here is that Skill Groups and specializations can't be used together.  In character creation or afterward, you can take a specialization with one Skill in a Group, but once that happens the group is "broken" and you have to improve the component skills individually (in this case rather than buying up Firearms Group all at once you'd have to buy each of three skills up, which costs more Karma and time).   When using Karma (either during or after character creation) improving a Skill costs its new rating times 2 Karma (so a new Skill at rating 1 would be 2 Karma and buying that same skill to rating 2 would be 4, a total of 6 if done all at once).  Buying up a Skill Group is new rating times 5 (a new Group is 5, buying it from 1 to 2 is an additional 10 Karma) and buying a new specialization is 7 Karma.  

In addition to "Active" skills, characters get a certain number of free background Skill points to buy Languages and Knowledge Skills.  The free points equal Logic + Intuition x 2 (it used to be times 3).  In the setting, North America and most other regions are fragmented into various nations, making extra languages useful.  Knowledge Skills can refer to various things the character learned from his background and basically add flavor to the character or can come up if a situation requires professional knowledge.

Thus when making a character and likely afterward, you will have to flip between the character creation section (specifically the Improvement charts on page 107) and the actual Skills chapter, since while some skills are fairly straightforward, like the Combat skills, others require a bit more explanation.  These include Escape Artist and some of the athletic skills, Build/Repair tasks with the various Mechanic skills, and Social Skills (which seem to use the same play mechanic but have different modifiers depending on what each skill is used for).  The Skills section also explains how to use raw Attributes for certain tests, since "if a dozen beast spirits were to suddenly materialize, claws probing the air for prey, there is not a skill to help you avoid soiling yourself."  In this case, there is a Composure test that uses Willpower + Charisma to prevent such an event.

Section.5 is Combat.  "In the world of Shadowrun, combat is an inevitability."  When it starts, everyone needs to roll Initiative.  This works differently than in the prior edition.  In other editions, magic or implants that gave you enhanced reflexes gave you more than one Initiative Pass, giving you more than one action per Combat Turn.  Here, enhancements give you extra Initiative Dice.  In the physical world (as opposed to Astral space or the Matrix) your Initiative roll is Intuition + Reaction + 1d6.  Enhancements like wired reflexes will add more initiative dice.  Notably, the dice roll with initiative rating is a total, NOT counting hits, so if you have 2d6 dice and roll 11, you add the full 11 to your Initiative Attribute (again, Intuition + Reaction in most cases) as the Initiative Score for that Combat Turn.  If your total score is more than 10, you get more than one Initiative Pass, because in this system you get Passes in increments of 10 – thus a character who rolled an Initiative Score of 22 gets three Initiative Passes that Turn, one at 22, one at 12 and one at 2.  
In itself I like this system since it gives a bit more variety to the initiative order; it's not unlike the system used by old Villains & Vigilantes.  The problem is that as in prior editions, any wounds suffered will affect your Initiative Score immediately.  If you somehow change Initiative (like your augmentation is cancelled or if you cast a spell to increase reflexes) the difference in dice is immediately rolled and subtracted or added to your Initiative Score.  Also, if you don't have augmentations, you can spend Edge to either "Seize the Initiative" or "Blitz", in the latter case getting the maximum of 5 Initiative Dice.  However, it's only at that point that the text makes clear that you can't have more than 5 Initiative Dice with all modifiers applied.

In organizing a combat, Combat Turns are 3 seconds a piece (so 20 turns is one minute), characters move in descending Initiative order (including modifiers for multiple Initiative Passes) and each time the character's action comes up (which may be more than once) is his Action Phase.  In each Action Phase characters can take one Free Action (takes little or no time, like dropping a weapon), up to two Simple Actions, only one of which can be an attack action, or one Complex Action (full-auto fire, load and fire a bow in one Action Phase, cast a spell).  When performing movement, your movement rate is the rate for the entire Turn (even if you get more than one Initiative Pass).  A regular move is a Free Action, and trying to exceed your normal move (Sprinting with a Running + Strength test) is a Complex Action.  In SR5, "Interrupt" actions (like parrying an attack) subtract up to 10 from your current Initiative Score but allow the character to perform that action immediately (assuming the character still has enough Initiative Score).

Attacking is relatively simple.  One uses his relevant skill test as an opposed roll against the defender's Reaction + Intution.  If the defender wants to use a defensive skill to add to this pool (e.g. Blades to parry a melee attack) it counts as one of those Interrupt actions.  A tied roll is considered a grazing hit, which does no damage but can allow certain carrier attacks (like contact poison) to work.  Otherwise, the attacker's net hits after basic success are added to the Damage Value (DV) of a given attack.  Attacks may also have an Armor Penetration value (AP) that is applied against the defender's Armor Value, if he has any armor.  Otherwise a defender who is struck then rolls his Body + modified Armor Value (in physical combat) against the modified DV of the attack.  If the net result brings DV to 0 or less, the defender avoids damage.  Otherwise damage is applied to either the Physical or Stun Condition Monitor, depending on what type it is.  Usually guns and knives inflict Physical damage, which takes longer to heal than Stun.  Even if a character has a high Body to "soak" attacks, Armor is still important in that if the modified DV of an attack after net hits is less than the modified Armor Value after AP,  the DV of a Physical attack is instead considered Stun (for example, a bullet fails to penetrate but can still do damage from stopping power).  Most energy attacks, like electric tasers, will reduce the Armor Value unless the armor is specially treated (fireproof, non-conductive, etc.).  They may also have secondary effects (like a fire attack, which can set surrounding objects on fire).

Otherwise this section goes into greater detail, in particular on firearms, their ranges and the options for automatic weapons.  All other sorts of fun stuff is here, including the various modifiers for certain combat situations, what happens to barriers in combat, and vehicle combat.  Notably the Combat section also includes the rules for healing damage, which used to be further back in the book.  Natural healing is an extended test where Stun damage heals with Body + Willpower every hour and Physical heals with a Body (doubled) test every day.  Glitches will increase the heal time and a critical glitch can actually increase the damage.  First Aid can heal boxes, as can Heal spells, although First Aid cannot be applied after magical healing (the reverse is true, however).  The Medicine skill (distinct from First Aid) applies successes to a character's natural healing.  This is important because First Aid and/or Heal can only be applied once to a given set of injuries.   If a character's Stun damage makes him go unconscious, every two Stun after that "carries over" as one point of Physical.  If a character's Physical Condition Monitor goes to 0, he will suffer a point of "overflow" damage from deterioration over a period in minutes equal to his Body.  If overflow damage ever exceeds the character's Body, he dies.

Section.6 is the important chapter on The Matrix.  In the mid-21st Century, businesses were able to create a shared virtual environment that they used for their activities, and which normally required a direct neural interface to fully access (making it less useful to magicians and others who simply didn't have that cyberware).  In 2064 the Matrix crashed and had to be rebuilt from the ground up, which now allows for augmented reality and augmented reality objects (AROs) to be accessible to pretty much everybody, not just the cybered.  Thus, the alternate history which already has magic and monsters as of the 2010's and functional cyberlimbs less than 60 years into the future still needs 50 years to get something close to the user-friendly consumer software we have RIGHT FRAGGIN' NOW.
Even more recently- as in between the latest version of 4th Edition (2072) and this book (2075), the corps decided that those pesky hacker-types and technomancers were having their run of the Matrix far too easily, so they reprogrammed the access systems and re-skinned the Matrix so that it somewhat resembles its old wired configuration, but with the most updated security possible, so that regular commlink systems couldn't be used to hack it.  Thus, with that updated security, shadowrunners had to improve their tech, leading in turn to a revival of the old-time cyberdeck.
These days it looks more like an iPad than a laptop, but it's still very specialized, and of course much more expensive than a consumer commlink.  One difference between the two is that the cyberdeck always includes a full sim (simulation) module to allow full access to virtual reality.
Virtual reality allows for faster reactions in the Matrix (more Initiative Dice) but also allows for the possibility of biofeedback damage from opposing programs.  "Hot-sim" (with the filters off) allows for the fastest reactions and perceptions (+2 dice to Matrix actions) but allows for "Black IC" security to cause a hacker Physical damage.  It is also potentially as addictive as a "better than life" VR program- since that's basically what it is.

Technomancers are still able to access the new Matrix on a natural level, since as the book says, "While deckers might be thought of as scuba divers, using all sorts of gear to dive into and navigate the Matrix, technomancers are more like squid."

Mechanics-wise, a hacker needs high ratings in Computer, Cybercombat, Electronic Warfare, Hacking ('cleverly convincing the Matrix to do things its not designed to do') and also the 'build and repair' Skills of Hardware and Software.  There is also a Resonance Skill Group that can only be used by technomancers.  

When operating in the Matrix, various actors use specific Matrix attributes: commlinks and most consumer devices only use Data Processing and Firewall.  Cyberdecks and host systems also have Attack (direct manipulation) and Sleaze (not so direct manipulation).  In 5th Edition, cyberdecks also have an "Attribute Array" which allows a modular configuration of the four attributes for certain tasks.  Anything that can be accessed by the Matrix also has a Matrix Condition Monitor.  This is important because a LOT of stuff – including most contemporary firearms – is wireless or wireless accessible.  If a hacker takes a device's Condition Monitor to 0, it is "bricked" and no longer usable, at least not in its electronic functions ('The firing pin on an assault rifle might not work, but its bayonet works just fine for stabbing smug hackers').

One other important mechanic for the new Matrix is the Overwatch Score.  The corporations rebuilt the Matrix under the auspices of a security service called the Grid Overwatch Division, or GOD.  (Which in a way would make the Matrix the GODnet.)  Local sub-divisions of the Matrix are thus called demiGODs.  In the Matrix, the moment you perform an illegal action (namely the Attack or Sleaze functions), you develop an Overwatch Score (OS) based on the number of hits that the target gets on its defense test.  This OS will also increase by 2d6 every fifteen minutes after you start tracking an OS.  When the OS gets to 40 or more, the local grid inflicts cyber-damage on you and then kicks you out of the system (causing 'dumpshock' independent of the first round of damage), and of course your physical location is traced.  The score will reset to zero after rebooting the system, but in practical terms it sets a time limit on hacking.

The mid-part of this section goes over the main actions possible in the Matrix, the various targets accessible via the Matrix, and also the actions possible to intrusion-countermeasures (IC) agents, which will be used to kick you out of a host, or possibly kill you.  Finally there's more detail on the unique abilities of technomancers, which rely on the Special Attribute of Resonance – a quality which in-game is not terribly well defined, leading to attempts by organized interests to literally pick technomancers' brains to see how they work.  In Fifth Edition, a technomancer has a "Living Persona" rather than a cyberdeck, his Device Rating is his Resonance, and his Matrix attributes are converted from his mental attributes.  They still have to risk addiction to hot-sim in the Matrix but can add their Resonance rating to any Addiction Tests.  They can perform certain Resonance Actions (like summoning 'sprites', analogous to both astral spirits and the automated agents used by deckers) but this can cause "Fading" which is much like magicians' Drain (see below).  They can also increase their attunement to the Matrix in a manner similar to magicians' Initiation.  However unlike deckers, their lack of equipment means that they can't reconfigure their abilities.

Section.7 is about Riggers.  Now, in previous editions, riggers' abilities were usually covered under the Matrix chapter, given that they could be considered a subset of hacker.  But here, they get their own chapter, with a certain level of perspective description ('what if you could BE the car?') and review of their other abilities, like the aforementioned use of security drones or the ability to run a building's entire security system on remote.
Mechanically, a rigger's tech is built around a control rig implant, which includes the direct neural interface and peripherals to connect to a rigger interface, which is the norm for most vehicles in the setting.  Vehicles and certain other devices (like security doors) can be controlled manually, by the control rig, by remote control, or by an internal autopilot program.  Naturally being a rigger requires great familiarity with all the vehicle (or 'Pilot X Vehicle') Skills.  Hooking into a vehicle gives much the same initiative bonuses as a hacker gets in VR, with a +1 vehicle skill pool bonus for hot-sim.  This section thus gets into some of the ways riggers and hackers intersect even though they aren't quite synonymous.  Since riggers normally are in charge of an outfit's remote assets, they get at least as much use of the Electronic Warfare skill as hackers.  This chapter also has a brief but detailed review of how drones actually work, including the 'autosoft' programs that give drones most of their abilities.

Next is Section.8, Magic.  The hows of magic are much the same (a Force-like energy field that the Awakened can tap into, but which is also altered by the activities of the living beings that comprise it), but the emphasis in the setting is a little changed.  SR5 seems to encourage the option to play 'aspected' magicians- those whose innate talent only allows them to access one part of the magical arts (which broadly speaking are spirit Conjuring, spellcasting or Sorcery, and Enchanting, which works not unlike Sorcery but can be focused into objects).  It's  mentioned that as with the other social inequalities of the setting, a "caste system" has developed with the "full magicians" who have access to all capabilities feeling a bit superior to the aspected magicians, even if the latter comprise 90 percent of the magic-using population.  It's also mentioned that the larger mundane culture still has less real familiarity with magic than high technology.

There are some more options for spellcasting in the new edition.  It is possible to cast multiple spells at once through the same process as multiple combat actions (splitting the dice pool).  Spellcasting is normally a Complex Action but can be made into a Simple Action with "reckless spellcasting," at the cost of increasing the Drain caused by channeling magic (which is normally Stun but can be Physical if the hits on your spell exceed your Magic rating).  In a change, the "spellbook" is listed first with the spellcasting rules, before describing Conjuring, Enchantment or Adept powers.  There's also a bit more discussion given to the various types of spells- Combat, Detection, Health, Illusion and Manipulation- and how they work.  (In this edition, there is no longer a "Turn to Goo" spell.  Of course, for that task my group usually had a Panther Assault Cannon.)  One bit is brand new to SR5, ritual spellcasting.  Well, that's always been core to the magic system, but in this edition rituals are more like what D&D 3+ calls "metamagic" - effects that expand the sphere of an existing spell in a certain way.  For instance the Prodigal Spell allows a ritual team to cast a Combat spell outside line of sight.

Conjuring rules are fairly brief and mainly go over the rules for getting services out of the spirits you've conjured.  This part actually includes stat blocks for the most commonly summoned spirits, the elemental spirits and the shamanic Beast spirits and Spirits of Man.

The really new rules section here is for Enchanting, most commonly used for Alchemy.  Again, Alchemy in practice is fairly similar to spellcasting, except spells are called "preparations" and the particular focus object used for a preparation is called a lynchpin.  The advantage of this is that you basically have a "triggered" spell that can be held for a period of hours equal to the spell's Force, or Potency.  (It actually lasts longer than that, but not at full power.) There are also rules for the other aspects of Enchanting, Artificing (the creation of magical power foci) and  Disjoining (the 'dispelling' of magical objects) but these are not unheard of in previous editions.

Next, the Magic section gives a basic array of Adept powers, which are bought with a set of Power Points based on your starting Magic rating and represent your "quantified qi energy".  Notably SR5 lists some powers with a description of what level of action (Free, Simple or Complex) it takes to activate the power.  If the power doesn't come with that line, it is "intrinsic" and always on.

Then the book goes over actions concerning the astral realm, the world of mana and spirits which most magicians can access in a manner analogous to the hacker's use of the Matrix.  Except that even fewer can access it and again, the actions and emotions of beings can have an effect on that realm.  Among other things, this makes detective-mages very useful in that magical actions always create an astral signature in the area, which identifies a given magician and can also be traced through spirits and effects created by that magician.  It's also possible for full magicians to scout by astral perception, though as opposed to the Matrix the time period for leaving your body is a factor of your Magic rating x2 in hours, and if you exceed this, your character dies. The astral section also gives briefs on astral combat and mana barriers (which can be either purely astral or 'dual-natured' effecting physical and astral things equally).

The Magic section of SR5 also gives a few new things for adepts. Characters can use Foci to add power to certain spells, or have Weapon Foci as magic weapons, but now there are Qi Foci that can be bought as items or actually done as body modifications like tattoos or piercings.  These are used to add (or improve) adept powers and thus can only be used by adepts.  Not only that, SR4 had already detached the mentor spirit (aka totem) concept from being shamanic-only so that hermetic mages could have such a mentor.  Now in SR5, each mentor archetype (like Cat, Dragonslayer, etc.) not only has a specific advantage and disadvantage associated with that spirit, each provides specific benefits to magicians and adepts (Bear, for instance gives +2 dice pools to resist standard damage, while magicians also get +2 dice on Health effects and Bear adepts get a free level of Rapid Healing power).

Finally, the Magic section also provides basics on Initiation, the mystical process by which a magical character gains a greater level of knowledge, which in game terms means increasing one's Magic rating by 1 per initiation (possibly beyond the normal max of 6).  They specifically say that "future supplements" will apply more details for the "metamagic" choices each grade provides, but in this book they give options like Centering (adding your initiate grade to rolls to resist Drain), Shielding (adding initiate grade to spell defense) or Masking (which can disguise that astral signature mentioned earlier).

The next section, .09 is the Gamemaster Advice part of the book, easily the most improved part of the corebook comparing SR4 to SR5.  For one thing, it emphasizes the primacy of the GM communicating with his players to find out exactly what they want from the game- how much stress on role-playing drama versus the logistical details of a mission, and so on.  This can make the difference between players who are engaged and players who are bored.  This factor also includes players getting together to discuss what kind of characters they want to play (elite operators versus street-level, for instance) and how well they get along – since there's a certain difference between role-playing character conflict and having a real conflict between players.  

More substantively, the 5th Edition corebook gives a greater emphasis on teaching new GMs how to design a run.  Starting with a "hook" that grabs the GM's attention, possibly something that would occur at the climax of the story, this section describes the kind of scenes that are used to build a story, working backward from the hook to get the characters involved and to create a plausible background (which for one thing could be used to create future hooks even if the PCs don't explore those details just yet).  In all of this, it's stressed that the GM should keep things as loose and "modular" as possible, so that the GM can react to player choices and thus keep the game plot natural and allow the players to feel in control.  Because: "The purpose behind this is to ensure that the players are having fun by having their choices make a meaningful difference, and the gamemaster has fun by telling the story they want, even if it has to be adapted."

Part of these details include going over the "run templates" that the game's self-created genre lends itself to, including typical missions and what can happen on the run.  This section has several random generator tables where one table shows where the team meets their Johnson, another table shows who Mr. Johnson is, and another table shows what's going to end up complicating the job.  As an added bonus, the back of the book has these tables on a convenient page to make an instant shadowrun.  With modification this generator can also be used to write Saturday horror movies for the SyFy channel.

The GM's section has a pretty good review of the security procedures a PC team will face on a run, as did the SR4 book, though here it's pointed out that most targets will not have the assets of money or time to guard a facility 24/7 – they may however have High Threat Response (HTR) teams available to deal with an issue once it becomes known.  This also includes tips on how to deal with threats in the three "worlds" of Shadowrun – physical, Matrix and astral.  Specifically, using cover, teamwork and channeling methods (like traps) in the meat world, restricting networks, hosts and hardware access in the Matrix, and limiting visibility of magicians (since the scope of magic is usually limited to a magician's line of sight).  More specific details like security systems and how to bypass them are given here.  Related to security is the matter of identification and licensing, especially since in the setting everyone's supposed to have a System Identification Number (SIN).  One thing this book has that the last edition didn't is details on exactly how good a fake SIN is by its game rating, which is important because a runner is going to need a fake SIN even if (or especially if) he has a legit one.  

More mechanical/player character rules here include rules for a character's Reputation (important for dealing with NPCs, below), a character's general living standard or Lifestyle (including new custom options like 20% discount for living in a Dangerous Area, or 'Isn't that where a guy got shot yesterday?') and something this game has needed for QUITE some fraggin' time: specific guidelines for how much a team ought to get paid for a run.

Section.10 is called Helps and Hindrances and has a miscellaneous set of features, starting with rules for grunts (aka mooks),  "prime runners" (who are not necessarily more powerful than PCs but are built much the same way, including use of Edge) and the important rules for building and using a character's Contacts.   Other "NPCs" include Critters (what other games would call monsters), and this section includes rules for the special innate powers they may possess.

Then this section has rules for toxins and what they do in game terms.  Related to this is use of drugs, and also the BTL (better-than-life) simsense program.  These are not physically addictive but are very psychologically addictive, potentially causing a "wirehead" effect where the user neglects all other aspects of keeping himself alive to maintain the program.  All this leads to the rules for Addiction Tests, what happens if you burn out, and what happens if you try to detox.

And then we get Section.11, Street Gear.  Everyone is going to need to use this part.  Most of the really fancy gear runners will want has an Availability rating, reflecting how restricted it is by the government.  It will be noted that some of the gear may or may not be within a PC's credit limit but may be above a PC's Availability Rating.  This basically keeps the really powerful gear out of a starting player's reach, although it's mentioned that in games built around government operatives (for instance) this whole concept doesn't apply.  Part of this deals with concealing gear or getting it licensed, since even something within a PC's starting Availability may be restricted in a certain area.
Very important, especially in this edition, is how one's gear interacts with the wireless world, since with the current technology, almost every item has a wireless presence, including clothing.
Even if it's only an RFID tag, such items can be hacked.  In SR5, many item descriptions include the item's wireless bonus, which is a feature that only applies if the item's wireless feature is on.  This is usually the default condition, but if one wants to forestall being hacked – or if the item is in a static zone – the gear loses its wireless feature.

Comparing the combat stats of the game's weapons and armor, it's clear that weapons are a good deal more lethal and armor is somewhat tougher. For instance SR4's Ares Predator IV had a Damage Value of 5P while the new Ares Predator V is 8P .   On the other hand an Urban Explorer Jumpsuit used to add 6 to damage resistance tests from Armor Rating and now it adds 9.

There is a great deal more gear in here, including vehicles, drones, hacker's tools (like cyberdecks), magical tools and B&E gear, but this is the section you want to get your internal augmentations, including both cyberware and the newer bioware.  Both cause an Essence loss, although bioware is more natural and has less Essence cost, though it is usually much pricier than a cybermod with an equivalent function.  On the other hand cyberware can be more modular.  Certain cyberware, like cybereyes and cyberlimbs, have a Capacity rating – these mods can often be installed by themselves for an Essence cost, but if an item's Capacity is less than that of a larger item- like a cybergun fitted into a cyberarm- the internal feature costs no additional Essence.

SUMMARY

"I still think the setting is the best part of the game but decent rules would be a nice plus. "
-Votan, The RPGsite

At its core, Shadowrun 5th Edition is much the same game as 4th Edition.  However the differences cannot be glossed over.  On first impression, my biggest problem with SR5 was the "limits" concept.  Again, I think the limits rule is not just a complication, it's a needless one.  Most of the time, characters will be able to avoid it by spending Edge, and in my experience with SR4, the fact that you needed at least a 5 on the die to score a hit meant that even characters with eight dice on a task (respectable for a beginning PC) wouldn't be able to get more than four successes without Edge most of the time anyway.  Which I guess brings up the point that I didn't like the 4th Edition dice system to begin with.

However, taken as a whole, most of what SR5 adds makes the system as a whole work better.  For instance, in SR4 (and to some extent in previous versions) I and my friends were never really able to "get" running the Matrix, to the extent that when I ran a game of SR4 the other players deliberately did not make a Hacker PC so that they could just hire a GM-PC and have me "hand wave" the details of that work.  With SR5 they streamlined enough of the process so that while I'm still not too clear on running the Matrix, this is the first edition where I might actually want to run a hacker.  And like I said, the Gamemaster section is almost worth it by itself, given that it answers a few questions I as a GM have had for quite some time.

The only reason I wouldn't run this edition right now (apart from minor issues in converting prior characters) is that since Shadowrun was brought back by Catalyst, there have been a whole bunch of useful supplements to the game, including the extra advantages, flaws and Metatypes in Runner's Companion, and it'd be nice to know if those elements are going to be changed much before I run a 5th Edition game with them.  Still, while the rules have never been the coolest part of Shadowrun – especially since the base mechanic is not changed – they've improved enough to make buying the new corebook worthwhile.


Rating: 7

Our group may be dropping 3.5 D&D to run this for a while... so tonight we made up characters for it. 3 of us and the GM, half of us knowing the rules and half not. It took us from 7pm to Midnight to get our characters made and they're still not complete.
To me it seemed overly complicated for little return, but the group tends to favor crunchier games than I do.

Also, the whole magic/technology dichotomy kind of irks me. I think there should all sorts of magic guns/bullets... but the guys I play with say no.

Quote from: Simlasa;692877Our group may be dropping 3.5 D&D to run this for a while... so tonight we made up characters for it. 3 of us and the GM, half of us knowing the rules and half not. It took us from 7pm to Midnight to get our characters made and they're still not complete.
To me it seemed overly complicated for little return, but the group tends to favor crunchier games than I do.

Also, the whole magic/technology dichotomy kind of irks me. I think there should all sorts of magic guns/bullets... but the guys I play with say no.

I already said in another thread that the magic vs. technology thing is a simple attempt at game balance, which is pretty obvious considering that the Technomancer ought to be MORE immersed in the Matrix if he gets cyberware.  

JG

Quote from: James Gillen;693072I already said in another thread that the magic vs. technology thing is a simple attempt at game balance, which is pretty obvious considering that the Technomancer ought to be MORE immersed in the Matrix if he gets cyberware.  

JG

Yeah, gimping such obvious implications of injecting fantasy into cyberpunk... in the name of 'balance' or whatever... kind of put me off it.