Hi,
i'm searching for a post that explains the main differences beetwen SR4 and SR5, and how to translate Characters.
We have recently bougth all the many books in SR4-20th, many hardcovered, the last in PDF, and we gonna play vintage 2nd and 3rd ed campaigns.
So i wonder if it's worth using SR5 instead of SR4-20th ?
It depends.
If someone wants to play a tweaked Rigger, that's not really possible right now. They are viable characters, but the vulnerable drones combined with lack of customization can make this real tricky.
Deckers can be done, Technomancers are complicated beasts, but if your players really want to dig into how the Matrix works, we don't have the book for that yet.
The special metavariants aren't in SR5 yet.
Leaving that aside, SR5 does have some really important changes that would lead me to suggest you use SR5.
First of all, you no longer can attack twice per Action Phase. This made balance between Street Samurais and Melee+Magic rather complicated. Now everyone gets 1 attack per IP, which also helps decrease the die-rolls needed and makes it easier to balance out the different builds. There's no need for massive-damage Melee characters anymore since they can still get a decent damage output without having to beat 2 attacks.
Defense is dual-statted now, so people actually got a shot at avoiding getting hit. In return damage has gone up significantly but so has Armor, meaning that IF hit it's more lethal. Body-limitations on Armor were removed, so mages aren't horribly squishy anymore.
Initiative got switched back to using initiative dice instead of IPs, and an Initiative-number system. This means even non-augmented characters got a shot at a second IP. It also allows for special options that cost you just a bit of Initiative, which may be harmless but also may be very dangerous, when it costs you an IP or makes you go after an enemy.
Direct combat spells aren't the main killer they were in SR4 anymore, instead they become very viable options versus targets that are either really hard to hit or have way too much damage.
Hardened Armor got changed, now a Spirit isn't either invulnerable or down in a single hit.
And last there's the introduction of limits, and the raised skillcaps. The limits are a nice punishment to munchkins, forcing them to balance their characters out more or pay a price for it. The raised skillcaps after chargen make it possible to actually vary both PCs and NPCs past the boring "everyone has either 4 or 6".
Lastly, Priority may be restrictive in the character builds, but it helps prevent choice paralysis, allowing for faster chargen.
