So. First session done, there's downtime coming.
I found the thread Chimera was talking about on shadowruntabletop forums about acquisitions. I also found the mission stuff which discusses it.
While I don't have a problem running a low-power campaign, the current application of the rules has severe problems, and certain groups will abide by the mission rules and have a much wider access to gear.
So... the rules as they currently stand - by combination of Mission primer, Core rulebook, and Forum.
1. Gear can be acquired during downtime (Primer)
2. Acquiring gear must use the purchased hits rules - 4 dice = 1 hit, rounded down. (Primer)
3. Otherwise, rules on p. 418 are followed as normal. (Core book, Primer, Forums)
4. Contacts use their connection rating instead of Charisma, and Loyalty instead of negotiation (Primer/Forum).
5. It... seems that forums think that connection gets added twice because of p. 418, but the line reads "with their Connection rating serving as a bonus to their Social Limit" (emphasis added). So, pretty sure forum reading of this, where they use 'Dice pool = Connection + Connection + Loyalty' is incorrect. I've posted this, waiting for reply. (Core book, Forums)
6. Characters can use their own Charisma/Negotiate to look for gear. (Core book, Forums)
7. Teamwork tests appear to be allowed (Forums)
The problems
So, there are 2 problems that come out of this. The first is usefulness of contacts, the second is absurd gear power differences between groups in Missions.
Usefulness of contacts. The prime reason to have fixer contacts, both thematically and mechanically, is to have a better access to fancy stuff than you otherwise could. The exception is any Face character archetype - they have their own ability to get stuff. But fixers, marketers, vendors, etc... are there to help you get stuff.
The stated reason for ignoring the contact stats is "You might not always know the Charisma and Negotiate ratings of your contact, so all contacts use their Connection for Charisma, and Loyalty for Negotiate" (In Primer, I believe). This equates all contacts across the board - a loyal friend mechanic is as good at getting deltaware as a dedicated cybertech.
Further, if I'm right about the Connection bonus to Social Limit only - that means the maximum number of opening dice a contact can roll is... 7. Given that's their maximum opening karma expenditure. 7 dice buys you... 1 hit. 1 hit for gear acquisition. This in turn means the maximum gear availability rating you can acquire is also 7.
Even if I'm wrong about the bonus to Connection - a Connection 6, Loyalty 1 contact will get 13 dice, which buys 3 hits. This means highest gear availability rating of 15. That's decent, but only if Conn+Conn+Loy is the way to go, which I don't think it is...
There's also the issue of cost affecting time, but that's relatively minor compared to the availability thing.
The second problem is more abstract, and doesn't really affect us (I don't think), because we're a self-contained group. The ostensible reason for enforcing the 'buy hits' rule and homogenising contacts is so that characters playing Missions are reasonably interchangeable and at roughly equal power and gear level.
However, in the forum post about this topic, a couple of groups posted that they have a Face archetype, with some 17-20 dice in combined Charisma, augments, and Negotiate. It's their thing - comparable to Croton's Matrix dice pool or Red's Attack pool. It's not even super, super-focused. It's just what their character does. The result, however, is that a group with that Face has easy access to Availability Rating up to 19 or 23. They literally stated in their forums post - they're getting Krime Cannons after the first run.
The abstract problem is that restricting to buy hits and homogeneous contacts means any group with a Face will break the gear curve, compared to ours. Again - the problem is hypothetical, since we're self-contained, but it serves to show a serious, mega flaw in the enforced buy hits, homogeneous contacts rules.
I don't really have a solution that doesn't include abandoning the missions rules - Bull himself has responded in the Gear thread and made no corrections to anything I just recited. We'll see about my bonus to limit post - maybe that will shake something loose.
This is more of a heads-up to Loswaith, who was asking about cyberware. Mind you, my situation is equally hopeless for heavy weapon mounts, or anything else serious to upgrade my Bus.
Also, if I'm right about Connection thing - forget getting any gear over availability rating 7.
