In general, I am very pleased with most of Unwired.

One thing that has caught me up, by coming up in the PbP I run, is how to work resonance bonds. I do realize that the bonds come with a 'use carefully' warning.

My questions, more or less in order, are these:

1) When buying the resonance bond quality, how do you decide how much edge your spirit needs? Why does it matter? Only Res 7 sprites and higher usually go free, and can have any number of edge upon becoming free from 1 to their maximum. (Most spirits would max at Res-3, but there are some special cases listed in the rules on Free Sprites) I'm curious about this because the amount of edge the spirit has doesn't in any way correspond to any of the benefits gained from the three sample types of bond.

2) Is there any maximum to the Res of the sprite involved? For example, crizh pointed out to me that the average sprite able to break free is about Res 9. So taking that average, an allocation bond, which could be taken for 5 BP, would effectively give a 4d bonus to resist all fading, more or less forever. The other two types of bonds give the techno access to rating 9 CFs, from what's available to the sprite. Any of this for 5 BP. A particularly masochistic GM might let you take one of each type of the sample bonds, with three different sprites, giving you access to the 4d fade bonus, and 2 rating 9 CFs, for a whopping 15 BP and (possibly) letting one of the sprites borrow one of your CFs. All this assumes an 'average' free sprite of Res 9.

3) What was the intent here? The fluff idea of the rule is really keen, I'm wondering what the mechanical intent was. In some ways I wonder if there were supposed to be more guidelines that somehow didn't make the PDF, or maybe I'm missing something fundamental in my reading of things?

I haven't read unwired am just guessing off of what you wrote. Could the intent be to allow GMs to heap on as much better BP starved technomancers as they feel like?

Anything's possible, though there is a lot of other technomancer goodness in the book.

please correct me if I'm wrong, but the rest of the good seems to all cost karma, reguardless of how good a buy the extra's are they remain just, extras. This seems to allow TMs to cover there bases at a drastic discount.

That is something I'd like to know, too. The same thing happend to Spirit Pact in Street Magic. The more Edge the Spirit has, the more expensive the quality becomes. You don't get more, or better pacts with it. Seems really weird, especially, since most pacts were beneficial to the spirit only, or had additional, ludicrous costs if you actually used them.

I guess it's a control mechanic, where your GM can bone you randomly, demanding you pay 10 Karma because the spirit/sprite upgraded his Edge for no benefit to you. Thanky you very much.

Yeah, I've seen somebody suggest that on a Spirit Pact thread, never did understand why anybody would think that was the case.

Do Street Magic or Unwired suggest that Mages/TM's that enter into these Pacts/Bonds after chargen should have to buy the appropriate quality?

Anywhere?

To be fair, I agree with Carny. The fact that the quality is charged based on the Sprites Edge, which bears only a passing resemblance to it's Rating, but the benefits are linked to Rating seems... ....abusable? Particularly in the case of Allocation Bond. Carny has house ruled it to be a bonus equal to the Sprites Edge, which makes much more sense, the benefit is directly proportional to the cost.

Where I don't agree with him, forgive me, is the idea, as quoted above, that the TM (or Mage) has signed up to ongoing, additional, karma costs that are not explicit in the rules and that would not be suffered if the Bond was not purchased at chargen. Like a TM (or Mage) really needs something else eating into his karma....

I don't think that was my intent, but yeah, I guess it would end up that way. I'm starting to think that to satisfy my inner madness, I'll end up writing a fairly lengthy houserule (or rules) about both the mage and techno versions. More on that after I get some shuteye.

Cool.

I'm off to work on a 'Miss Marple' outfit....

Carny's House Rule on Bonds and Pacts

After a careful re-reading of both Spirit Pact and Resonance Bond, and the material on both Free Spirits, and Free Sprites, I think it is (reasonably, and ymmv) safe to say the following:

1) Allocation bonds should give a die bonus equal to the sprite's edge, not half it's resonance.

2) If the spirit or sprite should gain more edge after the quality is purchased the additional bonus die should be treated as a 5 BP GM awarded positive quality. (see below)

3) Any pact or bond should be paid for with BP or karma. If gained during play, then it should be treated like any other GM award of a positive quality. (pg. 264, BBB)

Well, can't argue with any of that, seems more than reasonable.

so if the sprite burns edge, do i get a 5 BP/10 karma refund?

i'm just not particularly impressed with the way those 2 qualities work either, but i'm not convinced that charging karma/BP after chargen for people making pacts is the way to go.

If following the RAW on character advancement strictly, if the spirit or sprite were to burn edge, you are probably hosed, since there are no refunds for lost positive qualities.

Mechanically, going out and seeking a pact with a spirit or sprite during play is no different then taking in-game action to try and get any positive quality awarded. Basically, it is the GM's decision whether or not you get the quality, you don't have much say in the matter, in RAW.

Practically speaking, however, I think most GMs would be fair about the matter of a spirit or sprite burning edge. In my own case, if for whatever reason the spirit or sprite chose to burn edge, I'd leave the character's quality as is, and make the first priority of the being to get that edge back.