Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Character creation and critique => Topic started by: Maxwellus45 on <04-21-12/1756:13>
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What do you do with leftover BP? Knowing it's there drives me crazy!
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Contacts Contacts Contacts! ;D
There's never enough contacts to have, and each one can fill out even more of a character's story! Also, it gives the GM more ideas to work with.
I wish my group dealt with this problem. They often run out before they're even in the gear section.
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I really envy you for even being in the situation to ask such a question! What's your secret?? ;)
But yes, what CanRay said, Contacts. Or, if you have taken in debts as a negative quality: get rid of it (or lower it), by using the bp for money.
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You should never have leftover BP. Even if you've got all the gear, ware, and magical/technomantic mojo you want, you've still got contacts and skills.
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Honestly, I have everything I want. At this point, the trouble is verifing my charcter and playing the game. Hard to find groups these days.
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For verification, you can always post it up here and people will make sure all the the i and t are dotted and crossed.
As for the group, can't really help you there.
Typically when I have left over points, it depends how many I have left over. If it's less than 5, it's more or better contacts, or a specialization. If it's greater than that, it's usually a new skill of some sort. Edge is always a good place if you have enough points left over.
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edge is always useful especially if you play the missions which resets after everyone
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edge is always useful especially if you play the missions which resets after everyone
Really, a high Edge is of questionable value. Being a limited resource like it is, spending the standard attribute BP cost is really a waste after the third point. Now, it may be worth it with a house rule placing it at 5 BP per point (with no increase in cost for the 'hard cap' point).
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yeah i personally feel edge is a bit high in terms of bp and i rarely go over 3 myself. I prefer to have higher skills.
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My group swears by Edge, and the potential for getting out of trouble.
Of course, when planning my games and people disturb me, my usual comment is "I'm adding more violence", so that might colour their perceptions...
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Edge is a screwy stat. It is not essential to any build (except Mr. Lucky), but a high Edge can be extremely useful, either for mitigating bad rolls or for piling on successes when you really need to. Usually it is easier to get for specialized characters - more generalist builds have too many other things demanding build points.
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Edge is a screwy stat. It is not essential to any build (except Mr. Lucky), but a high Edge can be extremely useful, either for mitigating bad rolls or for piling on successes when you really need to. Usually it is easier to get for specialized characters - more generalist builds have too many other things demanding build points.
Not saying it can't be useful at all, just that as a limited resource, charging the cost of the attributes that aren't limited resources to raise it is overcharging for it.
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edge is always useful especially if you play the missions which resets after everyone
Really, a high Edge is of questionable value.
That depends on a lot of things, not least of which the build in question. We don't even need a goofy "Mr. Lucky" knock-off, here, but ANYONE that's got the potential to perform really key actions at really critical times is someone that would benefit from a high Edge. Sniper or melee characters (who are likely to attack rarely, but really need to do well when they do) for one. Hackers and drivers, as well, are more likely to make a handful of crucial rolls than to be slinging handfuls of dice over and over and over again. Faces want it to really make sure they pull off the best deal they can when talking to Mr. Johnson, and also for any crucial "we've GOT to talk our way inside, now!" moments that come up. When you consider how it lets spellcasters overcome certain Force limitations, and make sure they knock it outta the park on crucial summoning/drain resistance rolls, it's great for them, too.
So, basically, I disagree. In my experience, there aren't many builds out there that wouldn't be well served by soft-capping Edge, really.
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I find, personally, that Edge is most useful at 4 and up. At 4 or 5, adding dice (and thus the Rule of Six) is really worth it, because even tests you default on will have decent pools. At that level, Burning Edge is more possible for the truly screwy moments. I generally recommend having 1, or having 4 or 5. Doesn't seem worth it to me at 2 or 3. If you want to use Edge, generally go for high. Otherwise, low. You can always buy it up later. I think hardcapping is rarely worth it without going fullblown Mr. Lucky, or with long term runners running out of things to spend Karma on.
I may be slightly biased by my preference for karmagen, though, which makes the min max less an issue.
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Edge's usefulness depends on a number of variables. The biggest power of Edge is the ability to turn a bad roll into an okay one or even good one via rolling non-hit dice. I know some groups don't use Edge that way (instead having it only reroll tests that have no hits). There's also the question how the ratio between important rolls you make and Edge refresh rates. The faster Edge refreshes and the fewer rolls you make, the more useful Edge is.
I've generally haven't found the points needed to have much Edge with my characters. However I tend to make hybrid builds and that can get quite point intensive.
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In my experience, the value of edge seems to be based the most on how the GM is running the game. If you're looking at a guaranteed 5+ combat encounters in a session, then yes, edge is less useful. There will be too many "this is an important roll" moments. If we're talking fewer combats, or a higher openness to a well thought out plan, there easily could just be 3-5 rolls in a game session.
I have in fact gone through an entire session of SR play making only 4-5 rolls. Edge easily could of made my day a whole lot easier.
Now, to the OP.
How much BP are we talking about, sounds like only 1 or 2?
Do you have:
-Attributes (if you have 10+ bp leftover, consider this)
-Active Skills (if you're happy with your contacts, maybe you can take a specialization)
-Knowledge Skills (if you can't find anything good at all, you could just burn it on a new knowledge)
-Qualities (could buy off negatives)
-Contacts (my money is on you forgetting contacts, nobody has spare bp leftover)
-Gear (got your fake SINs in order? Have a better than squatter lifestyle? Maybe you could get more fake SINs for later)
-Spells/Complex forms
-Bound foci
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In my experience, the value of edge seems to be based the most on how the GM is running the game. If you're looking at a guaranteed 5+ combat encounters in a session, then yes, edge is less useful. There will be too many "this is an important roll" moments. If we're talking fewer combats, or a higher openness to a well thought out plan, there easily could just be 3-5 rolls in a game session.
I have in fact gone through an entire session of SR play making only 4-5 rolls. Edge easily could of made my day a whole lot easier.
I still say it's criminally overpriced for being a limited resource as it is. It's been even worse than that for me a couple of times where it seemed the GM running gave every enemy an unlimited Edge pool and Edge'd every single roll they made (PC pools remained at whatever was bought).
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Well technically, the enemy do have edge equal to their group rating, so if its a top notch group you're fighting... Of course that pool is also shared if I recall. Still, a rating 6 group throwing 6 edge around is pretty scary.
But yes, it is a pretty heavy cost. Once again though, if you're at a table where the heavy focus is on RP than tactical combat, high edge is usually an excellent thing, as passing that needed con test, or dodging that one shot are all you pretty much have to do.
Its just on a GM by GM basis. Current game I'm in, we reset edge every distinct "run."
I would argue that if you do know you're in that style of game, then it can help you. In a more generic sense of character planning though, it is something to be cautious about. Still, seeing 1 edge characters makes me sad.
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It's unfortunate that a cheating GM has colored your view of how an important game mechanic is supposed to work.
Edge conversation aside -- I really AM curious about this character, now, and wondering how one can manage to have left over BP.
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Exactly Edge should be an extremely rare quaulity for npcs because its so powerful and they rarely are involved in the game so they only will be using it against the players. The whole idea of edge is that its the one ace in the hole the players have against most npc. I generally make my npcs about the same skillwise for a challenge but edge is reserved for stuff like prime runners.
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It's unfortunate that a cheating GM has colored your view of how an important game mechanic is supposed to work.
It has gotten a little better with that one, but Edge still isn't that useful for PCs since every enemy (including "extras") still has their own distinct Edge, and if the PC Edges, then the enemy pretty much always counter-Edges (pretty much making it worthless to do).
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It's unfortunate that a cheating GM has colored your view of how an important game mechanic is supposed to work.
It has gotten a little better with that one, but Edge still isn't that useful for PCs since every enemy (including "extras") still has their own distinct Edge, and if the PC Edges, then the enemy pretty much always counter-Edges (pretty much making it worthless to do).
I...still disagree. It sounds like your GM is heavily house-ruling (and/or cheating, it's hard to tell), and that's coloring your perceptions of an otherwise extraordinarily useful statistic.
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What do you do with leftover BP? Knowing it's there drives me crazy!
Give it to me? My characters are always broke on BP....
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It's unfortunate that a cheating GM has colored your view of how an important game mechanic is supposed to work.
It has gotten a little better with that one, but Edge still isn't that useful for PCs since every enemy (including "extras") still has their own distinct Edge, and if the PC Edges, then the enemy pretty much always counter-Edges (pretty much making it worthless to do).
I...still disagree. It sounds like your GM is heavily house-ruling (and/or cheating, it's hard to tell), and that's coloring your perceptions of an otherwise extraordinarily useful statistic.
I have to agree with Critias. Unless the NPC is a Prime Runner, they shouldn't have distinct Edge. Normally, Edge is pulled for the entire group of NPCs just so this doesn't happen.
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Basically it comes down to what kind of enemies you're running against.
Mooks are going to have group edge. Meaning that whatever their professional rating is (1or 2 for corp sec, 3 or 4 for law enforcement, and 5 to 6 for elite security and military units), that's how much edge they have to split among their group. Depending on GM, they may split a large group of enemies into subgroups for this (for instance if their are two dozen SWAT members closing in, they might split them into three groups of 8 for sharing), but even that isn't really overpowering.
Elite NPCs, as in on their own unique, such as rival runners and movers and shakers in the world have their own edge.
I don't really think it should be used rarely for mooks or elites, after all they usually will end up burning some of it just to not be D.E.D dead at the end of the fight (assuming the runners act like stereotypical runners). I think what usually colors this view is that a lot of players put little to no value in edge, never use edge, and view it as a waste because in all reality they've never bothered with it beyond saving a point to burn for a hand of god case. Likewise, a lot of players only see edge as a way to reroll failures. Which is only one single use for it. If that's all it's used for, the rating doesn't matter beyond times you can use it, but using it to add dice a higher rating is always very very good.
I've got to agree with the others though. Saying that it's not worth it because a GM severely cheated with it (or it's believed the GM was cheating with it), can be applied to any mechanic if a GM uses it to cheat. A bad GM does not make a resource bad. It makes the bad GM bad.
I can slightly see how it can be irritating to be counter edged in some cases, but if you think about it from a roleplaying point of view, there are times when it absolutely makes sense. That Johnson meeting the runners gets his bonus (and promotions) based on the bottom line. Ya, he's probably going to be edging his negotiation rolls since that is 100% his only role for the company, get a good deal on his deniable assets. So, is the Johnson counter edging, or are the players counter edging (or does it really matter since both uses make absolute sense). Same goes for enemy mages that edge their counterspelling roles. As a sec/support mage, your #1 job is to cover your team astrally. The main part of that is keep astral things from ganking them. Most spells can easily be one shot stoppers if left unchecked, trying to stop them in their tracks makes sense, but it uses up the part of the mook groups edge pool so that's one less edge for dodging, resisting, composure, etc. Then again, this really again boils down to the GM actually roleplaying enemies and following the rules. If every single mook can edge every single test, you're probably going up against Professional Rating 18 super-borgs and that corp is really skynet in disguise. Time to jump ship or augment up and fight for the machines baby. 8)
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Basically it comes down to what kind of enemies you're running against.
Mooks are going to have group edge. Meaning that whatever their professional rating is (1or 2 for corp sec, 3 or 4 for law enforcement, and 5 to 6 for elite security and military units), that's how much edge they have to split among their group. Depending on GM, they may split a large group of enemies into subgroups for this (for instance if their are two dozen SWAT members closing in, they might split them into three groups of 8 for sharing), but even that isn't really overpowering.
Elite NPCs, as in on their own unique, such as rival runners and movers and shakers in the world have their own edge.
I don't really think it should be used rarely for mooks or elites, after all they usually will end up burning some of it just to not be D.E.D dead at the end of the fight (assuming the runners act like stereotypical runners). I think what usually colors this view is that a lot of players put little to no value in edge, never use edge, and view it as a waste because in all reality they've never bothered with it beyond saving a point to burn for a hand of god case. Likewise, a lot of players only see edge as a way to reroll failures. Which is only one single use for it. If that's all it's used for, the rating doesn't matter beyond times you can use it, but using it to add dice a higher rating is always very very good.
I've got to agree with the others though. Saying that it's not worth it because a GM severely cheated with it (or it's believed the GM was cheating with it), can be applied to any mechanic if a GM uses it to cheat. A bad GM does not make a resource bad. It makes the bad GM bad.
I can slightly see how it can be irritating to be counter edged in some cases, but if you think about it from a roleplaying point of view, there are times when it absolutely makes sense. That Johnson meeting the runners gets his bonus (and promotions) based on the bottom line. Ya, he's probably going to be edging his negotiation rolls since that is 100% his only role for the company, get a good deal on his deniable assets. So, is the Johnson counter edging, or are the players counter edging (or does it really matter since both uses make absolute sense). Same goes for enemy mages that edge their counterspelling roles. As a sec/support mage, your #1 job is to cover your team astrally. The main part of that is keep astral things from ganking them. Most spells can easily be one shot stoppers if left unchecked, trying to stop them in their tracks makes sense, but it uses up the part of the mook groups edge pool so that's one less edge for dodging, resisting, composure, etc. Then again, this really again boils down to the GM actually roleplaying enemies and following the rules. If every single mook can edge every single test, you're probably going up against Professional Rating 18 super-borgs and that corp is really skynet in disguise. Time to job ship or augment up and fight for the machines baby. 8)
No it does NOT make sense from an RP point of view. From the RP point of view, the opponent does not know that you've spent Edge, and thus should not counter-Edge.
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If you have your character the way that you want consider changing one of your contacts to a group with the Advanced Contact rules in Runner's Companion pg 123
on the edge derailment..
There are some tests that edge is not used up. Characters in a suppressive fire zone that can't stay in cover get Reaction + Edge to avoid getting hit. Another example is if you take a Heavy wound and your GM is using severe wounds optional rule in Augmentation pg 120 etc.
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No it does NOT make sense from an RP point of view. From the RP point of view, the opponent does not know that you've spent Edge, and thus should not counter-Edge.
You're using the term "counter-edge" to mean the enemy is only spending edge because the player did, when in a RP point of view, the enemy is spending edge to survive, get a better deal, etc. Yes, it makes no sense if the bad GM only uses edge when the players do. As has already been stated, a bad gm is a bad gm.
However, if the GM is spending edge at the appropriate time for the enemy: not getting guts blown over the sidewalk, making an excellent deal for their corporation, trying to keep the enemy mage astrally constipated, etc., it's not the case at all. If the enemy would have spent the edge, regardless of the player spending the edge, then it's one hundred percent makes sense. You seem to be saying to the effect: "Any time the GM spends edge on an action that directly affects/negates my action that I spend edge on, it's evil super doody counter-edging," when in reality it should be closer to, "Any time the GM only spent edge because I spent edge, he's being a jackass."
The two situations are fundamentally different. One is a simple case of NPCs striving to survive, and their are people too that need to be roleplayed like people. Sure they might appear as Mook 16, Mook 17, and Chinese Mook in the credits, but it doesn't mean they should be static and have their actions simplified to shoot, dodge, die with no thought of edge in the equation. The other case is bad gm jackassery and bordering on complete douchecachooery.
There are many times that I can plan out an adventure and actually write in exactly what point certain NPCs will be using edge (Johnsons for Negotiations, Sec. Guards for Perception or Dodging while holding a position, Mage's for Counterspelling and Banishing, etc.) in my notes for the group tactics. How does it go from just fine to horrible because a player spent edge, when the spending of mook edge was pre-planned and makes sense given their job/motivation/life?
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No it does NOT make sense from an RP point of view. From the RP point of view, the opponent does not know that you've spent Edge, and thus should not counter-Edge.
You're using the term "counter-edge" to mean the enemy is only spending edge because the player did, when in a RP point of view, the enemy is spending edge to survive, get a better deal, etc. Yes, it makes no sense if the bad GM only uses edge when the players do. As has already been stated, a bad gm is a bad gm.
However, if the GM is spending edge at the appropriate time for the enemy: not getting guts blown over the sidewalk, making an excellent deal for their corporation, trying to keep the enemy mage astrally constipated, etc., it's not the case at all. If the enemy would have spent the edge, regardless of the player spending the edge, then it's one hundred percent makes sense. You seem to be saying to the effect: "Any time the GM spends edge on an action that directly affects/negates my action that I spend edge on, it's evil super doody counter-edging," when in reality it should be closer to, "Any time the GM only spent edge because I spent edge, he's being a jackass."
The two situations are fundamentally different. One is a simple case of NPCs striving to survive, and their are people too that need to be roleplayed like people. Sure they might appear as Mook 16, Mook 17, and Chinese Mook in the credits, but it doesn't mean they should be static and have their actions simplified to shoot, dodge, die with no thought of edge in the equation. The other case is bad gm jackassery and bordering on complete douchecachooery.
There are many times that I can plan out an adventure and actually write in exactly what point certain NPCs will be using edge (Johnsons for Negotiations, Sec. Guards for Perception or Dodging while holding a position, Mage's for Counterspelling and Banishing, etc.) in my notes for the group tactics. How does it go from just fine to horrible because a player spent edge, when the spending of mook edge was pre-planned and makes sense given their job/motivation/life?
Well, when I run, the ONLY opponents that get Edge are ones that are basically the "prime runner" equivalent. I am tempted to start giving a pool of no more than two to be drawn on by ALL of those in a given session (not encounter), which happens to be how I feel NPC Edge should be.
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Basically it comes down to what kind of enemies you're running against.
Mooks are going to have group edge. Meaning that whatever their professional rating is (1or 2 for corp sec, 3 or 4 for law enforcement, and 5 to 6 for elite security and military units), that's how much edge they have to split among their group. Depending on GM, they may split a large group of enemies into subgroups for this (for instance if their are two dozen SWAT members closing in, they might split them into three groups of 8 for sharing), but even that isn't really overpowering.
Elite NPCs, as in on their own unique, such as rival runners and movers and shakers in the world have their own edge.
I don't really think it should be used rarely for mooks or elites, after all they usually will end up burning some of it just to not be D.E.D dead at the end of the fight (assuming the runners act like stereotypical runners). I think what usually colors this view is that a lot of players put little to no value in edge, never use edge, and view it as a waste because in all reality they've never bothered with it beyond saving a point to burn for a hand of god case. Likewise, a lot of players only see edge as a way to reroll failures. Which is only one single use for it. If that's all it's used for, the rating doesn't matter beyond times you can use it, but using it to add dice a higher rating is always very very good.
I've got to agree with the others though. Saying that it's not worth it because a GM severely cheated with it (or it's believed the GM was cheating with it), can be applied to any mechanic if a GM uses it to cheat. A bad GM does not make a resource bad. It makes the bad GM bad.
I can slightly see how it can be irritating to be counter edged in some cases, but if you think about it from a roleplaying point of view, there are times when it absolutely makes sense. That Johnson meeting the runners gets his bonus (and promotions) based on the bottom line. Ya, he's probably going to be edging his negotiation rolls since that is 100% his only role for the company, get a good deal on his deniable assets. So, is the Johnson counter edging, or are the players counter edging (or does it really matter since both uses make absolute sense). Same goes for enemy mages that edge their counterspelling roles. As a sec/support mage, your #1 job is to cover your team astrally. The main part of that is keep astral things from ganking them. Most spells can easily be one shot stoppers if left unchecked, trying to stop them in their tracks makes sense, but it uses up the part of the mook groups edge pool so that's one less edge for dodging, resisting, composure, etc. Then again, this really again boils down to the GM actually roleplaying enemies and following the rules. If every single mook can edge every single test, you're probably going up against Professional Rating 18 super-borgs and that corp is really skynet in disguise. Time to job ship or augment up and fight for the machines baby. 8)
No it does NOT make sense from an RP point of view. From the RP point of view, the opponent does not know that you've spent Edge, and thus should not counter-Edge.
No, he means from an RP perspective, the NPC would Edge whether the player does or not.
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Well, when I run, the ONLY opponents that get Edge are ones that are basically the "prime runner" equivalent. I am tempted to start giving a pool of no more than two to be drawn on by ALL of those in a given session (not encounter), which happens to be how I feel NPC Edge should be.
Which is fine. Really. If you want a steadier probability curve and less spikiness due to an intangible but important in-game mechanic, that's totally cool. It's a house rule I can understand and get behind.
But it is still just a house rule, every bit as much as your maybe-cheating-maybe-not GM...so you probably shouldn't give character creation advice based on either extreme, or if you DO give character creation advice based on a house ruled game (especially when the house rule deals very specifically with Edge, the character creation advice you're giving), it'd probably be cool if you mentioned it.
To use an extreme example as a means of making my point, if I play in a house-ruled game where Stick-and-Shock damage has been thrown all out of wack, it's weird of me to complain about how overpowered (or underpowered, depending on how I house ruled it) Stick-and-Shock is...right? If I say so, without mentioning that we've totally changed how it works in my game?
Same thing here.
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Well, when I run, the ONLY opponents that get Edge are ones that are basically the "prime runner" equivalent. I am tempted to start giving a pool of no more than two to be drawn on by ALL of those in a given session (not encounter), which happens to be how I feel NPC Edge should be.
Which is fine. Really. If you want a steadier probability curve and less spikiness due to an intangible but important in-game mechanic, that's totally cool. It's a house rule I can understand and get behind.
But it is still just a house rule, every bit as much as your maybe-cheating-maybe-not GM...so you probably shouldn't give character creation advice based on either extreme, or if you DO give character creation advice based on a house ruled game (especially when the house rule deals very specifically with Edge, the character creation advice you're giving), it'd probably be cool if you mentioned it.
To use an extreme example as a means of making my point, if I play in a house-ruled game where Stick-and-Shock damage has been thrown all out of wack, it's weird of me to complain about how overpowered (or underpowered, depending on how I house ruled it) Stick-and-Shock is...right? If I say so, without mentioning that we've totally changed how it works in my game?
Same thing here.
I limit the NPC Edge in games I run in that manner to make it worth what it costs. Under the normal way, it really should be half what it currently costs with the cap point not costing extra like other attributes.
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so.... 6 edge for 25bp?
So that's like... always take it when given the option?
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Edge is worth it to begin with. It just requires the player with edge to actually use the edge rather than sitting on the edge constantly waiting for a moment to use it (and not using it because they might need it later when it would help significantly now). I've watched an edge five hacker managed to consistently hack everything on the fly. Some things that wouldn't have been bothered with were hacked just because there was the ability to fall back on edge if needed. It provides exactly what it is supposed to, consistency insurance. It lets the character take slightly riskier actions because they can fall back on their edge to pull them through.
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I limit the NPC Edge in games I run in that manner to make it worth what it costs. Under the normal way, it really should be half what it currently costs with the cap point not costing extra like other attributes.
Really? So 25 BP (20 for humans) for Edge 6? That's a total gimme. You wouldn't see a single character not maxing it out. You might as well just give people 375 BP from the get-go, and "oh, btw, Edge 6" on every sheet.
Once again, man, I think you've just had some weird experiences with weird GMs, and it's colored your perceptions about how useful and valuable this stat really is.
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Edge conversation aside -- I really AM curious about this character, now, and wondering how one can manage to have left over BP.
I've been playng around with HeroLab ever since I bought it a week or so ago, and I wind up underspent by 1 or 2 BP, nearly as often as I wind up overspent by 10 or 15 BP. And realy, 1 or 2 BP isn't enough for a whole new Contact ... while your existincontacts might be "just right".
It can be surprisingly hard to spend JUST ONE BP.
On the subject of Edge ... Edge is godlike in it's potential, but only if you know when to best use it, and do so. One character I've got built is a gunslinger type - drops ~17 dice to shoot people with his pistol, and with Adrenaline Surge giving him fist action of the first IP in any combat ... yeah, making the two shots he can pull off really count makes his Edge of 5 a definite asset. Add five dice and turn on the Rule of Six, for both shots? And still have 3 Edge left afterwards? SIGN. ME. UP.
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on our table (with rotating GMs) we see Edge more or less as the aspect, that makes you the hero of the story. And I don't mean heroism, I mean the literary meaning of the word hero aka main character.
Playing an RPG means playing a story and every story has their main characters aka heroes. Edge is the drive, that makes heroes different from normal figures. Every NPC can have Agility 5 + weapon 4 + smartlink etc, but a hero will put all his effort and will to succeed into this one shot by adding Edge, because he has to save the princess!
This doesn't include prime runners, obviously, because they have some particular story-driving motivation, too.
On Grunts we only use Edge to avert very bad rolls.
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On the subject of Edge ... Edge is godlike in it's potential, but only if you know when to best use it, and do so. One character I've got built is a gunslinger type - drops ~17 dice to shoot people with his pistol, and with Adrenaline Surge giving him fist action of the first IP in any combat ... yeah, making the two shots he can pull off really count makes his Edge of 5 a definite asset. Add five dice and turn on the Rule of Six, for both shots? And still have 3 Edge left afterwards? SIGN. ME. UP.
With ~17 dice, you're better off rolling, and then spending the edge to reroll all the failed dice. Anytime your pool exceeds 18/7 of your edge, you're better off doing this.
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...18/7...
For those that don't want to do the math, that's just a smidge over 2.5x for when you're doing it on-the-fly... Or you can just memorize one of the following thresholds. ;)
1 Edge = 3
2 Edge = 5
3 Edge = 8
4 Edge = 10
5 Edge = 13
6 Edge = 15
7 Edge = 18
8 Edge = 20
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Edge conversation aside -- I really AM curious about this character, now, and wondering how one can manage to have left over BP.
I've been playng around with HeroLab ever since I bought it a week or so ago, and I wind up underspent by 1 or 2 BP, nearly as often as I wind up overspent by 10 or 15 BP. And realy, 1 or 2 BP isn't enough for a whole new Contact ... while your existincontacts might be "just right".
It can be surprisingly hard to spend JUST ONE BP.
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I find contacts are the easiest way to get rid of the nagging handful of "extra" BP. If you can't use another five grand in nuyen, you can ALWAYS make someone like you a little more, or a little better connected.
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...18/7...
For those that don't want to do the math, that's just a smidge over 2.5x for when you're doing it on-the-fly... Or you can just memorize one of the following thresholds. ;)
That's a comparison between the "declare Edge before the roll" and the "re-roll failures" options, right? Is there a calculation for when it's advantageous to use the "roll Edge # of dice after your first roll" option instead of the "re-roll failures" method (since those Edge dice can use the Rule-of-Six, it's not a direct comparison). I'm guessing that option is best if Edge is greater than or equal to the number of failures. ...?
E.g., with an Edge of 3 and 3 failures, I could choose to spend to re-roll those failures--or add 3 Edge dice. The latter is a better deal, based on the Rule of Six. But if I had an Edge of only 2, re-rolling failures would be better, right?
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5 exploding dice are worth 6 non-exploding dice. You can summarize this rule as:
If your edge is 4 or less, do the "add edge number of dice" option only when the missed dice are equal to or less than your edge.
If you have Edge 5, do the "add edge number of dice" option when there are 5 or less mixed dice. When there are exactly 6 missed dice, you should take the "add edge number of dice" if you really need more than 2 hits, and the "reroll misses" option if you more just want 1 or 2 more successes to hit a threshold [this is because the edge dice are spikier; you're more likely to get 0 hits, but also more likely to get 4]. When there are more than 6 missed dice, reroll the misses.
If you have Edge 6-8, do the "add edge number of dice" only when the missed dice are equal to or less than (your edge + 1).
There are some funny edge cases where you should do the 'add edge number of dice' option anyways - generally when you really need to hit an improbably high threshold. Like if you have Edge 1, 2 misses, and you need 3 more hits, you should go for the "edge number of dice" option since it's hopeless otherwise (but really, you should have predeclared edge!).