Basically can edge be used when buying hits for downtime events. For example a face has a pool of 12 dice and 4 edge. He buys 3 hits and uses edge to rebuy from the 9 remaining die for 2 additional hit and a total of 5. the next round he buys from a pool of 11 dice and re buys from the pool 9 dice for 4 hits. This process continues. Bull any input?

Short answer, no. Slightly less short answer, the answer for Season 2 and 3 till this point was no, and we're not changing any rules mid-season. We can review it as we look tooward Season 4 and refining the Missions rules and FAQ for that season.

Now, for the longer answer...

Mainly because due to the nature of Missions and the way downtime works, Edge essentially becomes a nearly infinite resource. Under normal circumstances, with the calendar system Missions uses, there's no "penalty" for taking as much time as you like individually between Missions, other than paying Lifestyle costs. And even with the 4 to 1 buy rate and the diminishing returns on extended tests, you can get all but the most out there items within a month or two of game time as it is. It's not until you start hitting really expensive items with availabilities of 16 or better that it starts to even become a real issue. Caine Hazen broke down a simple table Here.

Now, that said, I'll note a couple things we will look into when we review things for Season 4...

1) Some folks play with a regular group and a regular GM, but want to leave themselves open to playing special events and the like at Missions. For these groups, one option could be to allow them to roll for their downtime purchases rather than go with the straight buy method, and having the GM sign off on their log sheets and/or Calenders. Of course, if you're only playing in a home game and never plan to hit conventions or any other outside organized play, then none of this is necessary anyways.

2) Another thought might be to allow your Edge Pool to be used, but the Edge Pool does not refresh until your next Mission. This would need to be noted on your log/calender for record keeping purposes. It would let you use the edge, but wouldn't allow you to abuse your edge.

Neither of those are official options though. If we do make any changes or open things oup any, it will be noted in the Season 4 FAQ. It's something we'll have to talk about, and something we'll have to see how it balances.

Bull

For face characters using Edge between games may BE their game. The 'opportunity cost' of saving Edge so some is leftover for between games is not using it during a Mission.
I'm not suggesting Edge be generated inbetween games, merely that leftover Edge from a Mission be able to be spent when buying/selling/binding/registering after a Mission.

That has some merits as well. We'd basically have to say that, for Missions, Edge refreshes only at the beginning of a new Missions game, and doesn't refresh between sessions. Hrmm...

Again, something to talk about. I'm meeting with some of the Missions writers this weekend to talk about some stuff, so I'll throw this up on the agenda.

Thanks for the answer Bull. You have been very responsive to all of the questions I have posted and that is appreciated. Your answer seems to imply that this question has been answered in a FAQ or some such at a earlier date. I must have missed it, sorry about the reiteration of the question. Can you point me to that resource so I can reference it for my players?

Odd, I can't find anything in the SRM FAQ that says this. RAW's 4:1 buy implies that you couldn't use Edge to reroll failures, as there are no failures. However, Edge can also allow you to add a number of dice equal to the edge, a number of times equal to the amount of edge you have remaining to a single roll.

With diminishing returns, and forced 4:1 rule, that doesn't help much; however, this is a RAW and I don't see why SRM would need to over turn another SR4A rule.

For an Edge 5 character that had 4 edge left after a run and a pool of 12, the break down could look like this:

If Edge only refreshes at the start of a Mission its not infinite at all.

Don't allow open-ended rolls between games and DO allow Edge to add dice equal to the Edge rating and you have both easy-to-compute and balanced.

Hmm.

Under the Degrading Limited Extended Tests rule, you might as well not even try to buy stuff if your total dice pool is below 10 unless you're willing to pay extra to get bonus dice.

Someone with a Dice Pool of 9 can only ever manage to buy items of Availability 8 or below at base item value, and even an Avail 8 will take six intervals to get. That's pretty damn harsh.

If you have a total dice pool of 7, you really have no choice BUT to pay a lot extra nuyen, as without paying extra, the best you can ever get is Availability 4 items. And 7 isn't even THAT horrible - an attribute of 4 and a skill of 3, pretty average for most folks.




-karma

You have a choice. You can pay the face at your table a nice little percentage to find things for you.

If it doesnt change (or at least get tweaked) expect a larger % of mages and adepts in Seattle.

If he has time on his calendar, b/c everyone wants him to get stuff. So, you should still be paying that face for the amount of lifestyle you are forcing him to burn (else that "Mission Pay" thread is seriously erroneous.

That is what I charge. You have to pay my lifestyle for the time it takes me to get your item.

One thing to ask, when going through a contact, are you adding in the contacts loyalty dice?

What I've seen is the Contact adding his Connection dice when seeing how well he does in obtaining items, and in other cases where the PC is negotiating with the Contact the PC adds Loyalty dice to his test.

This reminds me...

At both Origins and DragonCon, a few different people informed me that the Dice Pool Cap did not apply if you were buying hits rather than rolling.

I, however, cannot find any actual rule stating or even hinting such in the books.

Does this exist, or are some folks just mistaken?




-karma

@Bull, I add the Connection rating, but it's rather weak since our Fixer's negotiations are much lower than the face and he/she's using the 4:1. We do get an extra 2 or 3 successes at the end of an extended test using it though.

@karma, the dice cap does come into effect in extended tests, but the dice cap is "per roll" from how I read it. If that is the case, then if you have a dice cap of 20 (assuming natrual stat + skill is 10 or less), but could roll up to 22 dice if there weren't a cap-- it would seem those 2 extra dice would come into play to offset the diminishing return twice.

That's how I understand it w/o researching it.

I don't tend to go through contacts. We have either used Mr Smith to buy stuff or my character Midnight. And we can pretty much out shine any fixer that the game provides.

Good point, since the -1 per roll is a dice pool modifier, and the cap is applied after modifiers.