The charactor generation foci bonding costs for bonding a focus is equal to the Force of the focus. Has there been any errata that I am unaware of?

at chargen, you need 1 BP per force of the focus to bind it. after chargen, it uses karma based on the type of focus, and is generally more expensive.

so no errata, but you may have been thinking of the rules for bonding a focus after chargen

other than that, i'm not sure what you might be thinking of...

So it is actually better to get a power focus at chargen (karma wise) than some other focus. And it is better to get a weapon focus with greater reach than 1 with less at chargen.

I was figuring out why someone(in terms of game mechanics) would get a katana rather than a combat axe. I would also like to ask if there are rules for using 2 melee weapons that I am not seeing. Also is a monofilament sword a 1 handed or 2 handed weapon (canonically speaking)?

monofilament swords are 1 handed, as i recall.

i don't memorise the melee weapons per se, but i would guess the axe is probably less concealable.

and no, there aren't any rules for 2 melee weapons that you're missing.

If your group plays with chargen availability limits (as is standard), the max force power or weapon focus you can get is 2. Other foci can be purchased at force 3. So there's your tradeoff. At chargen, a force 2 power focus and a Force 3 spellcasting focus both cost 12 BP, which is both and bonding. Post chargen, the force 3 spellcasting focus is cheaper to buy and bond than the force 2 power focus.

Don't have my book handy

but for fighting with two weapons, isn't rules already set up?
I seem to recall that if you have ambidexterity, you evenly split your dice pool and make two attacks.

That's for ranged combat.

Well, seems like a good rule of thumb for melee too

People keep saying that, but the rules keep not saying that.

Isn't the only possible multi-target attack in melee the one where they have to be very close to each other and you spilt your dice? There's not a rule for attacking with both hands at once like with guns

Well, there is a rule for off-hand use in melee combat, and just below it, a rule for attacking multiple targets (you split your pool by the number of targets).
Personally, I would not have any problem with one of those attacks being with the weapon in the off-hand (the pool is still divided regardless if it one or two weapons).

[edit, wrong thread]

2 BP to bind a force 2 power focus, 10 BP to buy the dang thing. 12 BP.

3 BP to bind a force 3 spellcasting focus, and presumably 9 BP to buy it. 12 BP.

notice he indicated those figures to include both the resources cost as well as the binding cost.

OK. Is there any reason why someone would bond a Weapon focus with a lower reach? I mean any of the higher reach weapons are nigh unconcealable anyway, so why not go the whole hog and bond the longest reach weapon focus?

well obviously for a lot of characters, melee weapon choice is pretty personal and directly related to their sense of style. People are much more likely to pick a melee weapon that "fits with their character" instead of reaching automatically for the combat axe.

There aren't any chargen bonding cost differences between a reach 0 and reach 2 weapon focus.

Also, since weapon foci cost so much, I can definitely see the advantage of a more concealable weapon... just to protect one's investment.

Personally, I don't charge people extra Karma for having a higher reach weapon focus. An extra Reach is just an extra die in the new rules, it's not a Force Modifier. By charging a Karma cost per Reach per Force, you're ensuring that noone will ever have a high Force Sword. And frankly, that's unfortunate.

Magic in the Shadows took the Reach out of the equation for SR3, and I think it's unfortunate that Street Magic didn't do the same for SR4.

Especially now that in SR4 a weapon with zero reach and Force 4 is better than a weapon with +1 reach and Force 3. Having them cost the same Karma is bad. The advantage of low reach should be high concealability (or "not being a mono-whip", which is its own advantage), not lower Karma cost.

-Frank

I am trying to find a good game mechanic reason for someone at chargen to choose to use a weapon with lower reach than the maximum available. Is there?

Concealability. Unless it's a monowhip, a large reach weapon will be hard to hide.

What about the difference between a katana(1 reach and maxed Unconcealability) and a combat axe(2 reach and unknowned, but presumed to be maxed Unconceal)?

If the question was so simple, I would not have asked it.

Combat axe is two handed. Katana can be one.

Wallah!

And all the weapons *should* be balanced, whether by features, price, or availability.

If one weapon is clearly superior, there's no reason to have the rest!

I am running a game as a stress test of the game system. If it is in the book, and not as an optional rule, it goes.

If the PC with a combat axe has an edge(no pun intended) over the PC with a sword, I'm sure my players can come up with a story for the ax-wielding PC that is believable.

A sword is one handed. A katana on the other hand is 2 handed. A monofilament sword is... unknown.

The monosword is a one-hander. It's just a sword (SR4 ruleswise) that has a supersharp monofilament edge. It's not rocket science to figure that out. "This well-balanced broadsword features superfine monofilament wire attached to its edges." Unless it states "two-handed" anywhere in the description, which it doesn't, it's a single-hander. If you look at the description of the 2 2-handed weapons in that section, they specifically state they are 2-handed in the description.

The combat axe has larger reach because it has more of a haft than the katana. The katana is basically just a japanese longsword or broadsword for hacking. Considered 2-handed because of the hilt. The combat axe is 3/4 of a staff with an axe head on it.

A katana makes some sense in the shadows because it can be concealed a little easier along the back and is a cyberpunk staple. A combat axe doesn't really make sense in the shadows. Too big to really make good use of it and not at all concealable.

Strange, I thought that creating a character involved picking numbers around a concept. NOT forming a concept around my specifically min/maxed numbers. I don't remember that ROLEplaying involved specialy picked numbers. Hmm, how the shadows have changed.

lol. numbers.

sorry, wrong thread.