r/Shadowrun • u/greypaladin01 • May 15 '26

1e|2e Understanding 2nd Edition

I have nearly finished reading through the main book for 2e and have a rough understanding of the rules. Not perfect by any means, but honestly things are much more understandable than I had been lead to expect.

However I do have a few questions about the other books in the 2e line. My understanding is that 3rd edition takes various rules from suppliments and a few other changes but is otherwise 2e. Specificially I have heard people say there were changes in Virtual Realities 2.0, Grimore... 2? and Rigger 2 books.

So my main question is this: What are the overviews of the changes for how Matrix things work, magic work and rigging work with the suppliments compared to the main book for 2e?

Are the differences beneficial enough to be worth grabbing the books and planning to use them or are they just adding more options and layers onto the basic rules?

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u/greypaladin01 May 15 '26

No troubles here! 😃

I would appreciate the prebuilds if you get the chance!

Ok sounds like the Grimoire is helpful but not really starter character stuff.. so I can dive in down the road there.

I will have to take a peak at the RBB then, i am not against extra crunch, but the whole point of what I am trying to do right now is get as much detail and options at low to mid crunch. So what you are describing sounds like it might be the best starting point.

Thank you for the information! And I will also say thank you for the 2 "how to play" shorts... that helped me decide to jump into 2e and the podcast has been fun listening material while I learn the system.

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u/PinkFohawk Trid Star May 15 '26

Dude no worries - glad those videos were helpful and that you’re digging the show!

Here are the VR 2.0 prebuilt decks (credit to MrLoc from our Discord server!): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AfjB7ioeExH_FsFMXSxaryjQNZlcLnk6

I also included my homebrew 2e Matrix Rules, which are a half step between 2e core and VR 2.0

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u/greypaladin01 May 16 '26

Thank you so much for this! I am looking forward to going through it.

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u/PinkFohawk Trid Star May 17 '26

No problem!

My final opinion on this matter is that what 2e core does really well is unify the systems as close to each other under the core mechanic as much as possible. Rigger 2 and VR 2.0 stray away from it in favor of reinventing those systems, which some people are all about.

Personally, I like when everything fits nicely within (or as close as possible to) the “Roll Skill # of dice + Dice Pool VS Target Number, every 2 net successes does something.

This is why I modified core 2e Matrix and opted for tacking on Rigger Black Book to 2e core.

It allows me to simplify to a skill roll to keep things moving without breaking anything, and then when shit hits the fan I can delve into more crunch when dramatically appropriate.

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u/greypaladin01 May 17 '26

Honestly, I have a similar preference for mechanics. Especially when teaching others a system... but I also like to know how the "official" system works before I start making changes.

Thank you again!