Some effects say to round up, others say round down, and still others say to round normally. Is there a general rule somewhere that says how to round when the effect doesn't specify?

As far as I can tell, SR4 usually rounds in the direction more beneficial to the actor. I don't think it's codified, though.

Shadowrun really could use some more fleshing out of the General Rules section.

There are a number of situations where there is no general rule, so you end up having to scour through all the books to read every possible scrap of related specific rules to get the whole picture.




-k

I would assume that rounding normally means that if the number is less then x.5 you round down and if it's more you round up.

I had this problem a while ago. We ended up using wikipedia's definition.

There's a distinction between round up and round half up.

In general, you always round up. There are a very few specific exceptions, and the only one that comes to mind as specifically round down is.... Augmented attribute maximums, i believe.

Drain Rounds Down as well... Force 7 has Base 3 Drain After all.
It generally rounds in favor of the Character doing the action unless stated otherwise...

Is that a rule or an assumption based on the evidence?

Practical Experience. Find every example of Rounding, and you will likely come to the same conclusion. It does not state it as such in that manner though.

What he said. When in doubt, round up, unless it deliberately contradicts a stated rule.

Player calculation: Round to benefit the player
GM calculation: Round to screw the player

Handles most cases rather well IMO.


Standard rounding assuming a spread of a value equal to 1:
0.5 or larger = Ceiling (round up) result
less then 0.5 = Floor (round down) result

I'm with TJ on this. I can't find a single instance of rounding that doesn't favor the character rolling the dice.

Yeah... I am sure there is one or two out there somehwere (like Attribute maximums and Augmented Skill Maximums), but for the most part, it favors the Dice Roller.

Ignoring that, I'd always round toward 'less powerful' (which is probably down). Screw you, player.

Deja Vu...

Magic loss due to implants reducing Essence comes to mind. That doesn't even need to be anywhere near the 0.5 boundary.

Shadowrun 3rd Edition used to have the unspoken ruling of "Round to Shaft." That is, round in whichever direction is worse for the player. There were two exceptions (that I remember): Spending Karma and Drain.

It seems that this too has changed in 4th Edition, by the comments above.

This is the one area in which I totally agree...

SR3 had the "general rule" though to round down by default.

Geasing adept powers rounded to the nearest 0.25 though, IIRC.

Indeed, Though I would argue (just because) to keep the decimal places on Geasa for Adept Powers. But yes, Round to nearest 0.25 Cost bracket.