The "Edge Fund", A New Idea for Gear Options

[Eyeless Blond]

Okay, so I find whenever I'm writing up a character I must spend usually half my time at least cramming all his gear together, and usually even when I'm done I'm dead certain I missed something, something that my character would never have missed since s/he's actually living his/her life, rather than simulating it on paper.

So, I had an idea: how about, instead of sweating the small stuff, why not make it easier on everyone--especially people new to the system--and have basic equipment be more easily available "on-the-fly"? So, I propose:


Edge Fund

"Edge Fund" is a section of resources that a player allocates at chargen, that accounts for general or character-specific equipment that the character would reasonably possess, but that the player either forgot to add or didn't feel was important.

The way it works is that players allocate funds to their character's personal "Edge Fund" at character generation. The amount in nuyen is recorded on their character sheet, just like any other character statistic. During the game, if the character gets into a situation where he is lacking a specific item that he could be reasonably expected to have on hand (that is, he was not specifically disarmed or de-equipped beforehand), the player can ask to retroactively obtain the equipment from Edge Funds:

1) Look up the Price and Availability of the item in question. If the Availability of the item is above 12, it is recommended that the GM disallow Edge Fund use except in particularly high-powered games.
2) The character rolls his Intuition + Edge, against a Threshold of the item's Availability. As with suppressive fire, this does not cont as actual Edge use. If the item is especially common (Availability -- ) or particularly central to the character concept (a hacker who forgot his commlink's Sim Module), the GM cn add a +2-+4 dice pool modifier to this test.
3) If the test succeeds, the character retroactively possesses the item, and the item's cost is deducted from his Edge Fund.

Note that Edge Funds cannot generally be used for services, such as cab fare, which need to be paid on the spot. Its intended purpose is to retroactively obtain something the character would have used before, such as a bus pass if the character was a regular user of public transit.

Players can put more money into Edge Fund after chargen as well, but at a 2:1 ration (that is, 5,000 nuyen paid into Edge Fund yields an extra 2,500 in Edge Funds. This is to represent how the player should be learning to play his character, and not rely as much on lucky breaks and the character's common sense as the game progresses.


So, what do you think?

[knasser]

I like it in principle. We used to have a similar system with the Resources attribute in Vampire: The Masquerade. Of course, that was more of a guideline for saying what the character could and couldn't get than it was something with actual mechanical effects.

I wont personally use this system for Shadowrun - I'll counter the risk of new players not buying a SIN or whatever other necessity by giving their sheets the twice over before we play - but I can see the use of it. Given the equipmenty nature of Shadowrun though, I see this granting a little too much power to players and I also anticipate scenarios where the GM says "I don't think you'd have brought a anti-tranquilisaer patches to the restaurant" and the player insisting that they've rolled it and they've got it. Also, I wouldn't factor Edge or Intuition into this. I'd derive some calculated attribute from Lifestyle probably, or at least the amount of funds invested at chargen. Otherwise, you lend an advantage to certain character builds.

[paws2sky]

D20 Modern has a similar rule that allows characters to make Wealth checks (D20m usues and abstracted system instead of exact amounts of money) to have items on hand that they forgot to buy at character creation, between sessions, etc. There are some availablity-like limits on what you can acquire with it, which works for that game.

Not sure if I'd really care for it for SR though. You'd probably be better off designing standardize bunches of gear. Like, for 5000 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) you can buy the B&E Kit, which contains a bunch of stuff you'd use for B&E work.

[Fuchs]

In my game, whatever characters are reasonably expected to have, they have.

[littlesean]

I like the idea, not sure about the implementation. I also like the idea of 'packages' that paws2sky mentioned. I just don't have the patience to put it together.

[CircuitBoyBlue]

I like the idea of doing at chargen, because some players (especially new ones) don't necessarily know that their character just wouldn't be able to survive without certain equipment. in the game I'm in now, we had a couple people who'd borrowed the books to make characters, and so didn't have time to read them very thoroughly, and had to buy commlinks in-game. It would have been nice to have a mechanic for saying "actually, you DID have that, because you're not a moron." I'd flat-out limit it to items that would have been possible to buy at chargen.

Blood of Heroes uses a "wealth rating," and anytime you buy anything, you make a test against it. So even if your character makes $800 million a year, there's a slight chance that you can't buy that microwave you want. On one hand, I guess this means maybe you didn't have your wallet, or your none of your assets are liquid at the moment (or whatever financial jargon applies). On the other hand, if I had a character that made $800 million a year, and I couldn't buy a microwave, my next wealth rating test would be to employ a squad of mercenaries to take over the store.

[Spike]

I like the idea, but agree that it breaks down the equipment based nature of Shadowrun very quickly. I like my players (and my characters, personally) to SWEAT their gear. Which is why I ask them what they actually carry and how they plan to carry it when I GM.

To be honest, when I first started reading the OP the first thing that came to my mind was 'build sets of gear', mostly as a shortcut for my own future characters. Things like 'Goggles/earbubs with fixin's x, y, z: Cost umpteen Nuyen' or, as mentioned 'B/E kit: Microchainsaw, Maglock passkey rating eleventy-one, thermite bars. Cost: Umpteen and one nuyen'

Maybe keep them on 3x5 cards (I lurve me some cards...) or a printed cheat sheet in the back of me book. Could be done for 'standard must have cyberware packages' as well.

[Drogos]

Half the fun of creating a character is spending every last dime of (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) purchased at character gen. That's where I spend 70% of my time and I never seem to be without any needed equipment. In fact, I usually have equipment the GM just drops his jaw on cause it ruins half a storyline (like the recording SIMsense deck when I slotted the BTL chip that the baddies were going to want from us).

[Fortune]

Could a player put 50 BP into the Fund?

Would cyberware/bioware also be retroactively available?

What about magical paraphernalia?

[Eyeless Blond]

Hm. Yeah, I definitely didn't plan on this being used for *all* equipment, or even nearly all, only the easy "doh!" moment stuff.

Okay, lemme rework this a little. Just a sec...

[Eyeless Blond]

Okay take a look at it again. Big change is that the threshold is now set to Availability, which means that most uncommon items will be out of reach. Mainly this rule is to avoid cheap "gotchas," like forgetting to buy a flashlight or something.

[Drogos]

I ALWAYS buy a flashlight (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) But I see what you are trying to get at here. Not a bad idea for people fresh into SR. Maybe a 5 point Positive Quality.

[Blog]

Positive Quality : Packrat
You have a tendancy to collect and store seemingly useless odds and ends. Occasionally its something usefull


Something i just made up I could see it being based on your current (or max) edge to determine if you have something or not. Threshold being based on the situation of the item.

[bibliophile20]

I ALWAYS buy a flashlight (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) But I see what you are trying to get at here. Not a bad idea for people fresh into SR. Maybe a 5 point Positive Quality.

Already been done (although I would tweak it a bit, personally)
From the "Homemade Negative Qualities" thread:

Pack Rat's Pockets (5 point positive quality)

You are forever picking up and storing minor items in your pockets, bags and pretty much anywhere you can.

Any time you need a non-combat item that costs less than 20 nuyen, you can find it in one of your pockets. If the GM rules that the item is particularly uncommon, or you are unlikely to have it, you must roll at least one success on an Edge test.

If you spend a point of Edge, the limit is increased to 50 nuyen, as you just so happened to pick up a white noise generator that you saw in a trash can last week....

The GM is free to limit the use of this power, and the items should never be used to simply make a profit for the character, except in rare circumstances.

EDIT: Damn, beaten to the punch by Blog! Too many tabs open!

[WeaverMount]

Hey, I'm not sure if someone mentioned this alread, but at my table story always comes first and is the sole consideration for fudges. If a face has hilarious idea that involves assembling an outlandish costume in an hour they will always have the right cloths at home. If having a white noise generator on hand fits a character concept and saves the table from having spend 15 minuets real time being paranoid about a security on a tiny meet, you bet they have it. Similarly if the team has been rocking the S&S rounds for to long and I hit them with an non-conductivity mod-ed drones you bet they aren't going to be pulling APDS out of thin air. It all comes down to what will make a good scene.

[Veggiesama]

Sorry for resurrecting this thread from the dead, but I loved the idea so much that I made it into a house rule for my game (with some modifications):

Edge Funds (Borrowed)

• An Edge Fund, allocated at character generation, accounts for general or character-specific equipment that your character would reasonably possess, but doesn't (generally because you forgot or didn't know better).
  

• This item might be a street samurai's stock commlink, an outlandish costume from the face's last year Halloween party, a white noise generator that the rigger keeps in his garage, or some other item. The point is you didn't anticipate to have this item at character creation.

  
  
• If the character gets into a situation where he needs such an item, then with GM permission, you can roll an Edge Fund test to retroactively obtain the item from the Edge fund. If the item has a high Availability rating, doesn't make sense given the character or situation, or for whatever reason, the Edge Fund test automatically fails.
  
• The player rolls Edge + Intuition against a GM-determined threshold. In addition, the GM may require you to spend a point of Edge.
  

• If you succeeds, your character owns the item. Deduct the item's cost from the Edge fund. The item may be found on the character's person, in the character's vehicle, or even stored at home.

  
  

• If you fail, your character does not own the item and must obtain it through normal means. Alternatively (especially for low-availability items), you own it but you left it at home. Either way, you still deduct the item's cost from the Edge fund.

  
  

• If you glitch, then you own the item, but something is wrong. It may be lost, you may have lent it to a friend, etc.

  
  
• You can cash-in your Edge fund at any time for actual nuyen, but you may never increase it over time.