>>13912960
>What are some big differences between 3e and the later editions?
The basic mechanics and the modifiers thereof got simplified. The original system was rolling a number of d6 representative of how good you are at X and trying to get Y of them (representing difficulty of task) over Z (difficulty of conditions), and rolling a 6 meant you rolled it again and adding the new result to the first 6, repeating for however long you rolled 6s.
This became a complete fucking mess when you realized there were modifiers for both X and Z. 4e and on made it easier by making Z 5, and there were never any circumstances under which Z was anything other than 5 unless you were playing with stupid house rules.
The biggest in-setting difference is the Matrix. 3e's biggest metaplot was Renraku fucking themselves up with an AI, which then proceeded to fuck up basically everything with a Matrix connection before getting taken out. Now everything and its mother is wireless, because the game has to update its setting to stay with the times and all that. This also means the aesthetic has gone from 80s cyberpunk to sleek, cloak and dagger Ghost in the Shell stuff, which I like but can understand abhorring.
Anyway, 4e's Matrix is complete shit and anyone who attempts to do anything with it needs to clear all the cum from between their ears. Not only do you not even need a cyberdeck to be a hacker, you hardly need mental stats. Your hacking ability is decided almost entirely by how expensive your commlink and programs are, so even a trog can fly past ICE if his pockets are deep enough.
5e fixes this, kind of. Hacking requires a very expensive cyberdeck to even attempt, and your software/computers skills actually matter. The sudden shift in how the Matrix works comes from the megacorporate powers that be realizing an open wireless internet that anyone could dick around on with their cellphone was a bad idea. Their solution was to lock shit down and form the Grid Overwatch Division most people just call GOD.
GOD is somehow monitoring every internet connection ever, and the moment you do something illegal, you start building up an overwatch score, and when it gets too high you get dumped so hard you take actual bodily damage instead of just stun from disorientation. The only way to get rid of it is hard-cutting all your connections to anything, which revokes whatever rights you had managed to hack yourself into.
Also, because the internet has somehow become shittier as time goes on, you now suffer "noise penalties" for trying to hack anything too far away. This incentivizes the hacker to actually fucking go somewhere instead of playing the entire game from inside a pod full of nutri-gel and never leaving VR.