Great review. I have to say I was heartbroken when I delved into it. I have a group of brand new players who are itching to play Shadowrun and I got weird looks when I told them "Yes I will GM. Welcome to 3rd edition!" lol

I ran 3rd edition back in the day and was asked to run Shadowrun again after many, many years away. I was all excited about 6th but now I think I will stick with 3rd. Thanks for an honest review!

I felt the same about 4th, as well. 4th even removed deckers. Wtf!? 5th was a solid entry and it seemed like the way it should’ve gone in the first place. I’ve played since 2nd and have all the core 3rd ed books, which I still run to this day. It blows my mind that they haven’t been able to figure out how to fix something as core and iconic as decking after 30 years. 3rd ed ftw.

This review was really helpful in making my decision whether to make the leap to 6e or not. Thanks for being straightforward and concise!

Great review! I've been unsure how to interpret what I've been reading online and your review cleared it right up. I'll be hanging onto my old editions and hope 7 goes better!

Solid, honest review! Congratulations and thanks.

I'm glad I found this. A local game shop wants me to run this game for them and I was struggling to understand why as I was reading the borrowed book. I thought to myself, "Surely Shadowrun players don't put up with this kind of thing" and had to look online to see if other people also thought it was poorly written, overly complicated, and just bad in many parts of the corerule book. I might look into Anarchy, or Cyberpunk if they're determined to have me run a game like this.

Thanks for the honest review. I guess is still back to the third edition for me.

Thank you for the honest review. I've been a shadowrun fan since 2nd edition. I've stuck with 3rd. There were some problems with 4th that I couldn't get over, and 5th felt like a rerelease of 4th but with the priorities system offered at creation.

Quick fun fact: every attribute is useful exept for strength. I read it through several times. The only use for strength i found is unarmed combat damage and the HMG Troll. (Only carry no influence on recoil or anything.) No skill is tied to strength and armed combat is also independent from strength. So why bother. I will build my first strenght 1 samurai, weeeee! Brocken beta test crap imO. Thx for the honest review.

I love 5th ed and 4th Anniversary. I haven't tried 6th yet, thank you very much for the review.

Thanks for the honest review! My son Louis wanted to run a shadow run game. I guess I'll try to find some of the older books

This is incredibly heartbreaking for me. I had recently gotten into the pseudo-cyber-fantasy that is Shadowrun, and I've heard a lot of goof things about it, so I picked it up at my FLGS. It's my first edition, and I was having trouble understanding the rules, so I opted to try and find some tips and walktrhoughs on how to at least set up a runner. I eventually ended up stumbling upon this review - when I discovered how poorly the die-hards received it, it makes me regret buying the 6e system altogether - and that's without even getting to play it for myself. I don't know if I even WANT to now. Great job with the review, though. Clear and concise, and valid reasons for the problems it's suffering rather than just screaming that it's bad. I guess I'll just have to give 5th edition Shadowrun a try... or wait until the full release of Cyberpunk RED.

So is Shadowrun just the Sonic of the tabletop world? 3rd was a bit of a clunky mess, 4th had a bunch of issues, 5th is apparently a trainwreck, and now this. Can this game get any love?

Fair and balanced review, Thank you

I love your review!!! Im sorry for your loss I really am. I'm kind of sad that I bought it now, but I'm glad I know where it's failed and possibly be able to find a way patch them at least for me.

I have played 3rd, 4th and 5th and the 5th is my absolute favorite. I still think the next time I will play Anarchy!

My sentiments exactly. I haven't been happy with a Shadowrun rules set since 3rd and even it had it's lion's share of problems.

In my opinion this game peeked around 2nd, 3rd edition.

For sure Shadowrun 5th is way better than 6th. I actually enjoyed 3rd. 4th not as much. Good review.

Great review. This is why we started playing Shadowrun in The Sprawl

Are there less typo's and page jumping then 5th? A bunch of 5ed page jumping didn't even refer you to where you needed to look for the information

Great Review! I got the limited edition book...yeah...nice cover. I just wish the rest was up to par. I had been planning a Shadowrun game for ages 'cause I love the setting but could never get a group together. Well got the people the people together and said "waiting on 6th edition before we begin, that way we all learn together." And dear god has it been a nightmarish experience. Editing is nonexistent, there are details straight up missing. If you want to have a little fun, try to find the specific part of the book where it states "Characters start with Essence 6." There isn't, anywhere. I had to go to the 5th edition book to find it. And then the contradicting rules, the poorly written sentences. I have completely new players, RPG-babies, excited to play and the corebook nearly made them quit out of frustration with how poorly things are explained. We're kicking off our game in a few weeks and as I'm preparing to run it, I keep looking at 5th edition and think...maybe it's not too late to switch over. But I'll probably run it 6th edition first, and just scrap the things I don't like and bring in what I do from 5th. Out of the bat, Slaving I'm using 5th edition rules, 'cause 6th ones are too restrictive. Oh, I've been on the SR forums and some Demo/Writing team have stated several times that they intended and had planned for things to be a certain way but the "corebook by committee" approach to this edition destroyed a lot of good work. How true that is, I don't know, but so far there's been more frustration than joy with this system.

There's WAAAAAAYYYYYY more to hate about Disney than the lines. Shadowrun came out in the 80s.

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CGL were trying to cash in on the Cyberpunk 2077 hype as soon as they could, so they threw quality control out the window and fast tracked the unplaytested mess they had out for sale. As a fan since 3e and who prefers this edition, I get heartbroken when I see what's become of this game. But hey, what do you expect from a company where one of the managers was found embezzling money so they could pay off a home extension, who doesn't care squat for Shadowrun and prefers Battletech (what a boring setting, Macross is better), and STILL sits on the board of management of CGL. The IP needs to be adopted by another studio, one who's in line with how passionate and excited the fans are and have always been about the Shadowrun world.

I wonder if any GMs have managed to make homebrew solutions to smooth over some of the flaws of recent editions. 🤔 The licensing could become an issue if anyone tried to distribute a modified system and call it "Shadowrun" etc, but does this game have enough fans to salvage the story and some of the larger aspects of the world by making (and playtesting) better rules? Or heck, "backporting" some of the ideas from later editions into 3rd edition which seems to be mentioned most in comments. But maybe it's demotivating when the publisher doesn't seem to care about the quality: it might be more enjoyable to play past editions or other games.

It seems like you're not overwhelmed with the sixth edition. That's an honest review. I have never played Shadowrun, but it seems like I should try fifth edition.

Shadowrun 5 had a fine system perfectly good just the formatting is unforgivable and the bouncing between pages you discribe is the same thing the shit formatting remains and that is the universal problem which was misdiagnosed by the creators

My own gaming experience with Shadowrun started toward the end of 1st edition, and took place mostly in 2nd. Although I've played a bit of 3rd. But it doesn't seem like the progress has been all that great going forward. And I'm not a big fan of the "streamline and simplify" concept, even if they had done that correctly---which it sounds like they did not.

Before the announcements of Shadowrun 6thE Me who FINALLY got his hands on the the 5thE book: YEEEEEESSSSSSS Me after finding out the 6thE is coming soon:NNNNOOOOOOOOOO Me after hearing everyone say 6thE is bad: YEEEEEEESSSSSSS (hehehehehehehe) Jokes aside Thanks for your honest opinion

I wish i had seen this review before i bought my book. Last Shadowrun i played before getting my own core book, was 3rd ed. And to me now 6th seems like a mess. I will admit i have not read the entire book, but i have read enough to know i wont be buying more of this edition. Instead i will be going back to Exalted and Call of Cthulhu.

I was looking at getting back into shadowrun, played all the 1st Ed missions, all the 2nd Ed, and we hacked both 1 and 2 together and it worked fine. So after 20 years I was doubtful about 5th edition but took the plunge. I found it clunky and was happy to hear that 6th would sort that out. Sadly not it seems. I'd like to try 3rd edition but I'm big on physical books and sourcing them through ebay, well, that gets expensive and painful. Good review, looks like my nostalgia is on hold.

Play Shadowrun with Savage Worlds instead. That's what I'll do

They should just give up and turn it all into whatever rules they used for the Shadowrun Hong Kong video game lol

The New Edge system sucks especially when you get all you edge back after each combat and the fact that people are rewarded for extra edge depending on situations like its raining there is no light and you have a nvg scope. you get an extra edge. Your gun is rating 4 higher then the enemies armor, you get a bonus edge for that. They just give away edge like candy. the magic is terrible and they got rid of the drain which made using magic more dangerous to use, The weapons are terrible and nerfed. MY group decided as well to stay with 5 ed and not even try 6th because of the changes that were made.

I’m a 2E with house rules Shadowrun fan and have been in since 1E. 6E is too amateurish to be useful. I got the humble bundle pdf 6E and it sucks.

I don't mind the trend in the modern postmodern-y RPG design for digesting previously complex mechanics into GM-centric on-the-fly 'ah whatever' nuanced bonus dice/advantage/edge dice but this is the worst form of whittling core rules away into a torpid, unworkable and unrecognisable mist.

i played second and thrid editon adn skiped 4th i got all books from 5th edtion every blackbook. I will do as i did when i started playing 5th again and pick up all the lorebooks and backgrounds from the new edtion as i did with the 4th one. but i will stay away from the rules. 5th is playable and fine for me

Sorry to say but Catalyst has ruined the franchise. I have every edition and just bought 6th. They just aren't good at this, it's obvious after three editions. Go back to 2 or 3e, that's what I'll do if we get to play Shadowrun again.

3rd edition was the peak. Every edition after was horrible.

I keep the lore but I am still running 5th edition rules with house rules to fix what wasn't working.

I plan to stick with 5th ed. Thanks for the review.

Gotta give respect for this review. Despite it seeming that we prefer different styles somewhat of Shadowrun play I got where you were coming from. Could relate to what you said. And really felt like you answered the questions about Shadowrun 6E. And I will NOT be buying it. Thanks for the effort.

Sixth world is great, but I do miss shooting someone with 30d6.

I love the cyberpunk but elves idea so should I just go for 5th ed or should I just run cyberpunk?

I feel you, the book is flawed, editing for sure has issues. But I have loved the idea of Shadowrun, and wanted to play it forever, but have never been able to, 4th and 5th edition are so convoluted and hard to figure out. I can enjoy what they changed, but there are issues. I am currently writing out formulas and rules, making changes, bridging gaps. But keeping true to the essence of 6th

I enjoyed 3rd Edition. Strayed into other genres for a few years, recently came back to 5th edition and spent a year doing the WTF? dance trying to figure it out. Based on the decline from 3rd to 5th I can only imagine how bad 6th is. I'd really love to find a new cyberpunk or even a modern rpg.

I've only ever played 3rd Edition Shadowrun, but I thought the system was very good. My only complaints were as follows: 1. Vehicle combat is clunky at best. 2. Running a real world run in tangent with a matrix run forces the GM to divide his time between two groups, which means one group has to wait while he deals with the other group. We've dealt with this by streamlining the Matrix into a few general rolls instead of drawing out the whole Matrix scenario. I've also purchased, but never played SR5, but from what I've read so far, I like a lot of what they changed. Based on this review, however, I think I'll skip SR6.

Hello Should i start with 5 ? I got 6 and all of what you said makes sense. It is really hard for me to get back to page 94 or 34 and so on... It is cool i love the videogames and i played other Tabletop RPG's with my Friends. With Shadowrun i am all in but it feels like it is to much or not that good to get that cool start. Thank you Sir!

The art direction of early edition was phenomenal!!! I don't know about 5G and 6G

Hmmm... SR 6 just came out in french now. Was all hyped about it and now not so much. I've been playing the 4th since 2006. What's your take on 5th ? Better than 4th ? Worth ? Or not enough change to go through the struggle of reading a book for basically the same things ?

I started to get unhappy at 5th edition. I've got books from 1st through 5th with most of the 3rd editions stuff with various 1st and 2nd edition stuffs. The 5th edition stuff you kinda make a 3rd rate ganger unless your GM allows for a more powerful build. Plus the decking stuff in 5th wasn't nearly as integrated as 4th was. I might even put it below 3rd edition in ease of use. You want a streamlined version then go 4th edition. 3rd edition is also good but the decking stuff is more separated than 4th edition.

Appreciate the review. I had a lot of fun making npc's for and gming Shadowrun 5th ed, while the details in 5th ed were interesting the 'meta plot' was super confusing [what is a fast jack?] figured it out later but I think i'll pass on sixth edition. Might try running something close to Shadowrun in GURPS.

This may be aboit late, but what would you say is the "best" edition.

You are honestly great at review's man keep it up I will say that you might want to put is some music really low in the background for those who have ADHD

Specifics please, what is different about system?

I wonder what edition you would recommend.

Who are these people who wants simpler? I've heard that since AD&D... Am I the only one who wants more complex?

I know people hate jumpcuts, but this would be so much better with them.

Really great review. Now I've never played a shadowrun game apart from the video games. I love the setting but as you say, the system let's it down and that's what stops me. I've always wondered why they don't copy the DnD 5e formate but just change it slightly. 5e works, it's simple to RP, simple to play and this is what makes DnD so popular to date. So why not borrow from it.

This speaks to me so much. Exactly how i run games 2:30

6th Ed? Never mind.

I really hope, they will ditch this edition soon and make a better 7th edition. I'd love to get into Shadowrun, but I had problems wrapping my head around some of the 5th edition rules. Especially once you get to the Matrix. I love the concept of the Rigger, but when I tried building one I had problems, especially at the buying equipment phase, understanding which attributes are important and so on... I don't mind spending time to wrap my head around crunchy mechanics, but even after KZfaq Videos, blogs, reddit posts, wikis, Rulesbook reading I had trouble to remember how certain mechanics play out and how to build a good character, that is more than a StreetSam. I love the setting and vibe of Shadowrun, I love reading books about the world. But I want an approachable system, that is actually good and helps to create amazing stories. Unfortunatly 6th Edition seems to fail to deliver that. There are many systems out there, crunchy and rules light that do amazing jobs at combining these aspects of their game - unfortunatly I havn't found that for the world of Shadowrun yet...

Hello, can you play this game solo? Or the system has some solo capability? Thanks

My original 1st Addition book is in the other room......

Do you have reviews of all the other editions? I played 2nd & 3rd ed

amazing video

That art direction is something huh?

It seems like a lot of people are hating on sixth edition, and I'm not entirely sure why? I mean, I haven't actually played any edition yet, but I have read fifth edition, and it seems rather solid. However Sixth edition seems a lot more simpler to play with. I can't really say anything until I've played, but to me it seems like people really don't like it. Thanks for the honesty, might consider playing Fifth edition instead of Sixth. 👍

I'm new to d&d and rpgs. There's orks n shit in shadowrun?! Still got dragons and monsters, stuff like that?

When he asked “What’s the one thing everyone hates about Disneyworld?” The first thing that came to mind was “It’s a small world after all, it’s a small world after all.” 😂

I never will get it. Why should we play 5th edition? Read street grimoire. There is nothing fit together. Like many other parts and like the ne 6th edition. I'll have to say, we in Germany had a little more fixed version but it is still a pity to see how they messed up AGAIN streamlining the rules or get decker integrated into the system. Every character has to role one time to do their job. Decker? "Nah the fans love them for hold back the game a couple of hours. This is the spirit of matrix " who has written the rules? The same guys who fail on 5th edition?

Yee yeeuh

What is the missing content? Your review makes complaints but doesn’t detail the complaints. As such, I have no idea why you didn’t like it..

Oh, you can say it. The art sucks! Where are the humans? It is ugly and gross. I've been playing Shadowrun since 1990 (Every Edition) and this is the ugliest edition yet.