K, I know this has prolly been on here 1000 times or so, but for some reason I can't search the forums.

What is the limit on starting availability? I keep thinking it is 6 or 8. Is it new, or was it in 2nd and I just can't find it?

I'm thinking about running a street level campain and limiting it to 3 or 4 for starting char.

Avilability is 8
Rating max is 6

It's 8 in normal campaigns. It's in the main book somewheres, but I remember reading it and that's what I use in my campaigns.

Of course, you can set it to whatever you want - take a look at the availability of weapons to see what you'd be eliminating, however.

[edit] curses! I gotta stop adding remarks...

.... good lord you people are fast.
Guess it's the hot asist interface.

Thanks all, I'll keep looking for page numbers. I know some of players are gonna bitch....

Problem is, that combat decker will have to be on site (probably the point of making him combat ready.) since you have to have a dataline tap of equal rating to your MPCP for it to work.

Just found the rule in 2nd edition. It's limited to availability 6 if you use the rule.

It's availability 8 with a rating limit of 6. Page 60 SR3, first paragraph under Assigning Resources.

Doctor Funk once compared MPCP rating with Speed or Body ratings of vehicles. Not something we typically limit to 6, whether you want to call that a house rule... <shrug>

There is actually little improvement for a stating decker having a MPCP7 over 6, (unless he wants to run a reality filter) as his program ratings are still limited to 6.

Edward

Well, it ups his persona ratings

i donno, personally, i would go with just the straight availabilty for the CMT, as there are other items that dont have a "rating" that can be bought. I consider it the deckers gun, the oly limitation on getting a gun, the avalibility, therefore, i think the CMT should be available as the best "gun" that the decker can get at chargen.

I agree with Aku on this. The deck is an item, MPCP is a property of that item. The same as a heavy pistol has a 9M damage code. If you wanted to then upgrade it, you would be limited to a max rating of 6, which would be pointless. The same a vehicles aren't limited to a max speed of 6, or guns aren't limited to a max power of 6, decks aren't limited to a max mpcp or other of 6, because the deck comes with the bigger number. Individually, you are limited to the max.

The problem comes with building a deck at Char-gen. You do choose a rating for the MPCP. The price is based on the rating.

eh, i dont think that would be a problem for me as a GM, i dont think i'd ALLOW a custom deck at chargen anyways, same with custom vehicles. Maybe it's just the Newb GM in me, but eh, anything that require the time like that, same with a custom vehicle,l i just dont think i'd allow... would you also make them do all the rolls for the designs? or do you eliminate them since, essentially they have all the time in the world to complete the project?

Building a deck at chargen, you aren't allowed to have over 6 MPCP, because you are choosing the rating.

The CMT has an availibility of 8? which allows it to be bought at chargen. The same issue as with a steel lynx. By design, you wouldn't be able to get something that good at chargen, had you designed it yourself, but since the designers did, and set the availibility for it, you can.

Wen I was designing a Decker with a custom deck (he hasn’t been played yet) I summed that I could have any MPCP rating I could have had off the shelf, that is up to 7.

The problem with disallowing custom decks (and vehicles) at char gen is the fact that a cyber deck is a very personal thing to a lot of deckers. The ratio of active and storage memory, how much hardening and how much reaction enhancement, wether or not you use a reality filter the presence or absence of keyboards monitors and other non-DNI interfaces all say a lot about the type of decker your playing.

For example my decker, data miner, had an unusual amount of storage memory for storing data “that might come in useful one day” he also had a large monitor with speakers built into the deck maximum reaction improvement a reality filter and only token hardening (he didn’t stick around once IC was triggered)

With cars it is different, it would be reasonable to say that a character couldn’t have a custom car to start with but what about the gaps in the market, I see very few electric fuel sell vehicles in the standard list for example. And the incredibly efficient diesel electric engine is not available at all (it can be modelled with a battery engine and a generator however)

Contrary to Tarantula’s statements I will point out that several things that have a rating over 6 and availability below 8 can not be purchased at char gen, EG slap patches & foci. If availability trumps rating then a rating 20 spell category focus is available at char gen (well if you can afford it)

Mean while if custom vehicles are being allowed at char gen I would assume that you can have a vehicle with a speed over 6, otherwise your custom sports car just isn’t going to be worth the bother, you may not be able to build something as good as a steal lynx t char gen but it is not because its assorted attributes are above 6

Edward

Another example of Allowed by Avil but not by rating, and more approiate to deckers is the Transys Optical chip encoder ( Avil 8 yet rating 10, i think).

Huh. Are optical chip encoders really worth getting at high ratings? It's not like the cook test is ever very hard.

And that's a good point about the Avatar. *Is* there any reason, other than the three extra persona points, to pay the extra 125kY for the Avatar at chargen over the Hyperdeck?

i suppose, as far as stock cyber decks go, i dont consider the mpcp as the be-all, end-all as far as a rating goes, and since it's under the availability, i'd allow it.

but again, as for char gen creation, there are too many holes to be had. for instance the point of time being an issue, i think, somewhere in matrix, there were rules for reducing tn's for longer times, werent there?


also, for the CMt, it has slightly more active, and a decent amount more of storage mem than the hyperdeck