Data Trails PDF is officially out! (SR5 Matrix Sourcebook)

[Vilhjalmr]

Just a heads up, I didn't even know this was out 'till I checked out of habit.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...un-Data-Trails

Will be picking up my copy VERY soon, looks promising!

[Pollution]

It's not.

There's some neat stuff in it, don't get me wrong. A couple of cool programs to run, some neat Commlink upgrades available (add Sleaze to your commlink for the win), the return of skinlink for technomancers (at the outrageous cost of an echo), AI character metatype is neat, but a bit broken.

If you're playing a Decker, or new to SR, this is a great book.

If you're playing a Technomancer, or looking for some hard rules for hacking cyberwear or similar rules that are lacking, don't hold your breath.

No fixes for Techno's not being able to PAN/WAN, a bunch of less than optional echoes that do little to nothing, some "neat" qualities, but overall a waste of text, etc...

Instead of putting in rules, fixes, or clarifications for the other half of the hacking sub-type (i.e. Technomancers), they've decided to put out a Technomancer Ebook (think Shadow Spells).

I'm so disappointed.... It's almost not worth the money, except that I'm my group's librarian, and if I'm missing a source book for a game I play, I get very agitated.

[Polecat]

Originally Posted by Pollution

If you're playing a Technomancer don't hold your breath.

What are you on about? Did you read all of the Technomancer setting material in there? Its like the last third of the book.

Plus, the book has the Leroy Jenkins and Nerd Rage qualities, its worth it for that alone. lol

Originally Posted by Pollution

Pathfinder Society is VASTLY superior because they ACTUALLY PUT SHIT OUT. There's a new scenario every month, and books come out left and right. I get that Catalyst is smaller than Paizo (no duh), but the support for their own game just isn't there.

SR is my first and favorite RPG. And I really feel like Bull and his ilk have ruined it. I'm not bitching about the rule changes (though there are a few wtf areas), I'm pissed that we don't have resources where we need them, and whenever we get them, they're half assed and incomplete.

Grrrrrrr

Dude, chill out. If you "finished all the missions" you could always use the random mission generator they give you. Your GM could make up runs. Or, you could just play something else. I don't mind SR5e, honestly. I enjoy playing it, and my group has had none of these problems. I think you are just projecting anger onto it and see faults where there are none.

Is it perfect?

No.

Should I have rules for concealing pop out guns on vehicles in the core rule book?

Yes!

Was the game session ruined because we couldn't find them, of course not. If you love Pathfinder so much, play it. If you love shadowrun, play it. But blaming the lack of the ability to play and enjoy the game on what (seems) like an unwilling to commit the time into planning sessions or randomly generating them seems a bit bitter and entitled to me man.

Its not like you're playing Shadowrun: Dragonfall and when you're done... thats it. Game Over. And its not really a contest, so what... piazo is pumping out books and Catalyst isn't giving you the rules you need. We've been playing for six sessions now and we havent need ANY of the rules you said were in 4E that are not in 5E and our last two missions were matrix-based.

I'm not picking on you or having a go, just feels a bit like you're angry at something and so finding reasons to validate that anger rather than making a fair assessment of the material.

Plus, if 4E was better there is NOTHING stopping you from playing it man. Stick with the games you love. Those old books don't automatically become useless just because something new comes out. If they do what you want them to do and give you what you want, just play 4E. Honestly, theyre both pretty compatible with one another anyway. It shouldn't take you longer than it does to squint to back covert the material.

[Pollution]

Originally Posted by Polecat

What are you on about? Did you read all of the Technomancer setting material in there? Its like the last third of the book.

Read it again. If you're talking about foundation stuff....that's available to every hacker in the game.

Techno's got a few qualities (former Otaku is neat-ish), a couple of CF's (most are not worth the investment) and a couple of Echoes (all are pretty piss-poor, and one is a rewrite of the core book Mind over Machine one with a different name, i.e. non stacking).

Techno's are completely ignored crunch wise. There's like all of 3 things in that book that benefit/add to the Techno's arsenal. That's all I was saying. Really, it's not worth it if you're a technomancer. It's Decker or bust (as is usual in 5th ed).

Plus, the book has the Leroy Jenkins and Nerd Rage qualities, its worth it for that alone. lol

I'll give you that the qualities are "neat". But compared to Unwired...the book sucks. No emotitoys, no rules on hacking lifestyle, no rules for PAN/WAN/Hosts, nothing "new" other than AI and Foundation (a foundation run looks neat as far as deep runs go, but most groups will never do them).

Dude, chill out. If you "finished all the missions" you could always use the random mission generator they give you. Your GM could make up runs. Or, you could just play something else. I don't mind SR5e, honestly. I enjoy playing it, and my group has had none of these problems. I think you are just projecting anger onto it and see faults where there are none.

It's not that easy, chummer. SR Missions (like PFS, but for SR) REQUIRES that you ONLY play the missions for that group. Nothing outside the support for Missions counts. My group finished all the missions save one last year. We haven't gotten together since because these guys WANT to play their characters at cons and stuff. Can't do that if you play a home game.

You HAVE to only play Sprawl Wilds, SRM-05-01 through X (whatever they're on now) and the other book with 4 missions. There's like 15, and that's all there are. If I run my group through a homebrew or "Random" mission, it doesn't count and they can't keep the karma/cash for "Missions!"

It's a shitty setup is what I'm saying.

(...the rest...

I LOVE SR, but from what I've seen of SR5 and what's been said about it.... I'll stick to SR4 for fun, and not get to play my favorite kind of character (Otaku/Technomancer) since there's no support for them in SR5. I'm pissed about the lack of support for MOST classes in the game. I'm pissed that they have this GREAT IP and they keep fucking it up with shit support and crap products.

Data Trails as a Core Supplement is more than lacking, it's pathetic and a money grab.

The Art takes up too much space, the sidebars are HUGE, and the text is 12pt font. They have a REALLY bad word count for the money.

If I could get my money back, I would in a heartbeat.

IDK, maybe it'll get better...but we had twice the books in 4th ed. by this point and they were Crunch and Flavor heavy. 5th ed. feels like they don't care about their own product.

It's the way I feel. Again, I can play homebrew, but not with the same Missions legal characters. And there's no support for it. There's a TON of gamers in my city, and ZERO Missions games other than the ones we ran. Nobody supports it because Catalyst doesn't.

It's sad.

[TheMaskedFerret]

Originally Posted by Pollution

It's not that easy, chummer. SR Missions (like PFS, but for SR) REQUIRES that you ONLY play the missions for that group. Nothing outside the support for Missions counts. My group finished all the missions save one last year. We haven't gotten together since because these guys WANT to play their characters at cons and stuff. Can't do that if you play a home game.

You HAVE to only play Sprawl Wilds, SRM-05-01 through X (whatever they're on now) and the other book with 4 missions. There's like 15, and that's all there are. If I run my group through a homebrew or "Random" mission, it doesn't count and they can't keep the karma/cash for "Missions!"

You are correct, there are basically 15 (18 exactly) SRM Chicago missions availble right now for a non-Catalyst Demo Team member (see http://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/...?topic=17971.0 for a full list.) However, if you can convince your local GM to join the Catalyst Demo Team, there are an additional 31 missions that might be available to run.

Don't forget that if you run the missions yourself, you can still get credit as if one of your characters had played the mission.

Let me know if you want more details.

- The Masked Ferret

[Pollution]

Originally Posted by TheMaskedFerret

You are correct, there are basically 15 (18 exactly) SRM Chicago missions availble right now for a non-Catalyst Demo Team member (see http://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/...?topic=17971.0 for a full list.) However, if you can convince your local GM to join the Catalyst Demo Team, there are an additional 31 missions that might be available to run.

Don't forget that if you run the missions yourself, you can still get credit as if one of your characters had played the mission.

Let me know if you want more details.

- The Masked Ferret

I applied 2 years ago.

Followed up a couple of times.

Gave up.

The response was zero, the interest was none.

I live in frickin Indianapolis. Home to GenCon.... You would think that they'd want ONE agent in town, but nope, none.

And if there is one, he's doing a shitty job, since there are a few SR games in town that I know of, but NOBODY runs Missions! around here. There's no firebase. I started the first "unofficial" firebase in Indy 2 years ago, got about 20 people interested in the game in that time, but had nothing to run.

My core 3 players and I said, "Fuck it! We'll go back to 4th and run those missions."

Zero support from Catalyst.

I'm probably so bitter because, again, SR was my FIRST RPG, I LOVED it. I followed it for years. Paid for the $50 3rd edition book, got all the devs to sign it at Gencon that year. Bought EVERY supplement that's ever come out (I'm a collector, it's a curse). And with 5th...I can't keep caring. They screw up every 5 minutes.

[seelenamt]

Pollution, don't worry, according to kincaid (one of the editors of data trails, speaking on the shadowrun forums) there is a specific technomancer splatbook in the works. Why they would choose to not just release it all at once is beyond me, but it is coming.

EDIT- Completely missed the part where you talk about it, never mind. The thing that bothers me is that, like in the case of shadow spells, there will be an important rule book that you just can't get a physical copy of.

[IssLance]

Originally Posted by seelenamt

Why they would choose to not just release it all at once is beyond me

$$$

is data trails planned to be released as a separate package or will be included in suplement #2?

[Pollution]

Originally Posted by IssLance

$$$

Agreed.

It's just disapointing

[AndrewD2]

Quite sure it will be a separate package like every core book so far