SR5 Not Dead Yet Not Same As SR3 Hand of God

Last night while playing a Shadowrun Missions module for Shadowrun 5th edition our table had the rather exciting situation of two PCs caught within the blast radius of all the grenades on grenade belt exploding. One of the PCs is not the subject of today's entry as will become clear once I finally write the session write-up (from a player perspective). Yeah, a plethora awaits.


See, even though role-playing games allow PCs to withstand powerful attacks like a grenade, several grenades exploding at once is still hazardous for one's health.


Fortunately, the other PC had an Edge rating.


Shadowrun 5th edition allows PCs to burn a point of Edge such that they are not dead yet.


For veteran Shadowrun players such as myself who've played third edition, we automatically think of that edition's hand of god.


Except they aren't quite the same.


Sure, both allow a PC to avoid dying from effect that would otherwise spell instant doom. They work differently.


SR3's Hand of God required a PC to spend a point of Karma available within the Karma Pool and then expend all Karma in order to avoid certain death once. Once and only once would the grim reaper of all shadowrunners hand be stayed. Yours truly, utilized Hand of God when my orc street samurai sustained a deadly wound and was tossed near some alligators. Afterwards, he started from scratch karma-wise thereafter. Good times. Good times.


Meanwhile, SR5's Not Dead Yet meanwhile only allowed the PC caught within the exploding grenade chorus to burn a permanent Edge. The RAW (rules as written) don't specifically state said PC must've had a point of Edge remaining within the Edge pool. Apparently, some of the participants learned that was intended as well (RAI).


Plus unlike my poor Orc Street Samurai, said PC can use Not Dead Yet for the remainder of shadowrunning career as long as the PC never burns all Edge and/or buys a new rating of Edge.


Must confess the last caused some cognitive dissonance on my end. Read the passage over and over again. Had a hard time shaking my confusing it with the old rule. Which is why I have taken it upon myself to blog about confusing old rules with new rules. Years ago, when I had started playing third edition Shadowrun, I corrected some old time players that the rules were different now. Flash forward to now, there's been a couple times I slipped back into third edition. Rules arguments are never fun especially when at the heart of the argument is rules differences between editions.


Another thing that came up in reference to Not Dead Yet and burning Edge was one's total Karma earned would be reduced. Don't know if that's rules confusion ala Hand of God or how Shadowrun Missions wants to record it. Shadowrun already has things such as initiation ordeals that permanently reduce both attributes and attribute limits that don't negatively impact a PC's total karma earned. Furthermore, a PC could very well never have raised Edge. If so, karma was never spent on an attribute point which no longer exists. Perhaps it's for record-keeping and determination of prime runner status purposes. Maybe the RAI meant for character's Street Rep to suffer whenever Edge is burnt?


All matters for further research and discussion.


Thus ends the latest installment of rules differences between editions.


Till Next Time,


Happy Gaming!