I've just read SR4 and i'm stuck with one thing... what is this Initiative Passes thing and how do i find out how many of them my character has?

Btw, how does an Initiative Pass work?
can anyone provide me a combat example of any kind?

thanks in advance!

you have a base number of passes of 1, this is raised by either cyberware or magic. at character creation you can only have a maximum initiative pass of 4 and thats using magic, otherwise its 3.

how it works is that you roll the number of dice equal to your initiative and then add the number of successes to that number of dice, you go on that number for a number of passes equal to your initiative pass

Let's say that Larry the bad street sam and Mikey the ganger are facing off. Larry has an initiative of 8 and 2 Initiative Passes (wired 1). Mikey has an initiative of 7 and 1 Initiative Pass (no real mods).

Combat begins without surprise so each side rolls an initiative test (using their initiative in dice). Successes are added to their initiative scores and we end up with:

Larry 10 (2 hits on the test)
Mikey 8 (1 hit on the test)

Combat turn 1, pass 1 starts.

Larry acts first and shoots at Mikey, but misses.

Mikey acts on his initiative of 8 and dives for cover, drawing his gun.

Combat turn 1, pass 2 starts.

Larry gets to go again, shooting at his foe. He misses again (he sucks).

Mikey does not get to act because he only has one initiative pass.

Combat turn 2, pass 1 starts.

Both characters can act, and so on.

hhmmm... so a sam with wired reflexes 3 has 1+3 Initiative passes right?
using the previous example, he would shoot, the guy would dive, then he would shoot 3 more times?

is there a way to have such passes before the opponent's turn?

when using 2 pistols, for example, on the first turn i'd shoot twice (1 time each gun), then the opponent dives, then i shoot again with both guns 3 more times?

and for a lil' more complex cenario, i can shoot twice with each gun on SA mode, right?

Your statements are correct.

And there is no way you can have more passes before your oppenent acts.

Of course, if your opponent had full cover you probably wouldn't shoot 3 more times in this turn. Lobbing a grenade perhaps .

Two pistols muddies the issue since you could actually shoot four times with two pistols per pass. The sammie with wired 3 could actually shoot 16 times in 3 seconds with two pistols. Because of the way defense dice drop with each attack, he's likely to hit a lot, too.

Thanks a lot for the help!