Editing Shadowrun (section)

===Fourth Edition===
Released in 2005. The year is 2071. The system got a major overhaul, as fourth editions tend to bring. A lot of mechanics were simplified, starting right from the dicerolling: rolling a dice pool with variable target numbers and Rule of Six always in order, hoping to get at least one roll over the target number, has been replaced by rolling a pool of dice with the target number preset, and then counting successes - dice with numbers rolled over said target number. A player can spend Edge on a roll to gain the Rule of Six and a pool bonus equal to Edge or reroll any dice that failed.

The new system is disputed to be more restrictive in the resolution of conflicts and character options. The new rule system also naturally renders most of the crunch from older edition books obsolete; the fluff contained in them, however, is still valid. And character creation got ''upgraded'' to [[Linear Build Quadratic EXP| the use of build points]], which touched off a nasty war between the "priorities" guys and the "BP" guys about whose system is ''more'' archaic and abusable.

Also, the Matrix rules have undergone a complete overhaul (justified in the fluff as a shift to wireless following a network crash just after the 3e splatbook "System Failure") to hypothetically allow hackers to do their thing without leaving the rest of the party inactive. Still, hackers prefer to break into systems out of the heat of combat if at all possible, so, while the issue has been made less severe, it is still present.

The most discussed difference from the previous editions is, surprisingly, the change of street jargon. While justified by almost ten in-game years passing since the third edition, a good deal of old-time players still believe that replacing "deckers" with "hackers", "cyberdecks" with "commlinks", "chummer" with "omae", or "otaku" with "technomancer" is too severe a change. That being said, older 'runners in-game would continue to use the older slang (remember, never trust anyone old in a profession where they ought to have died young).

Edition design style: still mostly black and white, but with green as an accent color. Full-colour character images for the example characters. The edition that asks you if you have heard about this film called "The Matrix?".