[Critias]

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.

[All4BigGuns]

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.

[KommissarK]

so.... 6 edge for 25bp?

So that's like... always take it when given the option?

[Crash_00]

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.

[Critias]

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.

[_Pax_]

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.

[Makki]

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.

[UmaroVI]

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.

[JustADude]

...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

[Critias]

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. 
[/quote]
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.

[Ratboy]

...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?

[UmaroVI]

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!).