I picked up the Runner's Toolkit at GenCon this year, I'd been using PACKS to run the Welcome to the Sixth World events all weekend and I wanted to get my hands on the maps and the compiled tables. Everything else I'll probably leave by the wayside, although the contacts and locations seems to be an updated version of the contacts packet that came with the first SR4 GM screen, so I'll probably hang on to that.
-GM Screen:
--Positives: awesome, great artwork, great tables, nice touch putting the page number where you can find the table in the book, all the appropriate information. It would have saved space had they collapsed the actions panels into a single master list of free/simple/complex but having them divided out will ease some confusion.
--Negatives: I could have done without the base grenade damage table, though, that's not value added. Instead include something about object resistance or damaging barriers or average barrier rating table. That's more useful.
-Compiled Tables:
--Positives: great resource, it's about time we had something like this.
--Negatives: no list in the front of what the book references mean, i.e. AR = Arsenal, AU = Augmentation, etc. Also, nothing in the tables from Spy Games, or War, or Runner's Black Book?
-On the Run, Anatomy of a Shadowrun
-- I haven't read through either of these in detail yet to ascertain any mistakes that might have been made. As I continue to review in depth I'll update this as appropriate.
-Quick Reference Sheets
--Positives: excellent quality, I like the heavy duty paper they're printed on.
--Negatives: for the combat ones, I think it would have been useful to have both offense and defense, i.e. what do you when being shot at in ranged combat, or being hit in astral combat. True, it's easy enough to work it backwards, but if we're breaking it down for players, we should break down both sides of the equation
-PACKs
--Positives: I worked three Welcome to the Sixth World scenarios utilizing the PACKs system, and in two hours I could have a table of six or seven brand new players generate characters and then spend the last two hours running them through a quick retrieval mission. So the system accomplishes what it set out to accomplish.
--Negatives: Why aren't the kits alphabetized? Why don't more of the skill kits contain critical skills like perception? In the metahuman adjustment table, does it really cost 0 BP to be an Ork? Do you really get 10 BP back for being a troll? Why are these different than the standard SR4A metahuman build point costs?
Under skill kits, it should explain that it is not necessary to purchase <skill kit> trainee before <skill kit> veteran. Also, it should explain how to handle it when you chose two skill kits that have overlapping skills, i.e. Handgun Expert and Automatics Expert both have the Automatics skill. There should be a paragraph instructing players to remove the lower rating/non-specialized skill and recover those skill points in BP. Further, there should also be an explanation about specializations and how those are annotated in the skill kits. Also, it would be useful to list recommended gear kits when choosing those skill kits.
The gear kits make no sense. There's nothing in the gear kit section which emphasizes to players that they should take the basic kit, and the basic kit doesn't even have a commlink! It would have been more effective to list out a basic kit with a commlink, medkit, fake SIN, plus one month of low lifestyle, basic armor and a respirator and tell all of the players to invest in that plus additional gear kits per their chosen skill kits. Also, the cyberware kits weren't broken out or explained in any way, nor were there warnings to those players choosing magically active characters that they should think twice before selecting any augmentations because that will negatively affect their magical abilities. Further, why do all the gear kits have multiple weapons? How many swords is the blade fighter going to need? Four is a bit much. Why does the martial artist need 40 throwing knives? These seem to be incredibly inefficient and mostly a waste of money. There was nothing done to insure that characters could use the gear effectively, either, those weapons that come equipped with smartlink did not have smartlink compatible goggles/glasses/contacts listed in the gear kits. There seemed to be no thought put into the armor selection for the kits, either, as many of the attribute kits ended up with a body of only 2 or 3 and gear kits with armor jackets in them, which, if worn, would impose significant agility penalties during combat. If we're going to include weapons from Arsenal, we might as well have included some of the armor as well to cover that eventuality.
Now, to head off the rebuttals to the list of shortcomings that I have identified above, yes, I as a GM, am responsible for filling in the gaps of player knowledge and ensuring that all of the particular rules governing character creation are adhered to. But my point is this: if we're going to have a quick generation system that requires me to provide the same level of guidance as the regular generation system does, why wouldn't I simply continue to use the regular generation system?
