So really, why would anyone ever want to buy hits?
The average amount of hits you get when rolling is 1/3 of your dice pool. Buying hits isn't even 1/4 of your dice pool, it's 1 hit per 4 dice. There's a difference.
Let's say we have 19 dice. If we were to roll average, we would expect 6.33 hits; rounded down to 6 hits. Buying hits would only result in 4 hits, as you don't round up your dice pool to get that final hit. 2 hits is a fairly large difference, and those 6 hits are if we roll average, we could roll above average and get more! While it's true you can roll below average, buying hits doesn't seem to be an excuse to me, because it's already below average.
I've heard the argument that people would rather take less hits than risk a glitch. Except the times when you would buy hits, you are extremely unlikely to glitch. Let's see a few examples.
- 20 dice; 5 hits when you buy hits; 6.67 hits average (rounded up to 7) | The chance to get a glitch = 0.0000000534% (1 in 1,871,953,121); a critical glitch = 0.000000000538% (1 in 185,752,092,672)
- 10 dice; 2 hits when you buy hits; 3.33 hits average (rounded down to 3) | The chance to get a glitch = 0.00103% (1 in 96,745.88); a critical glitch = 0.000134% (1 in 746496)
- 5 dice; 1 hit when you buy hits; 1.67 hits average (rounded up to 2) | The chance to get a glitch = 0.322% (1 in 311); a critical glitch = 0.116% (1 in 864)
The chances of glitching are not really that high until you get down to 1-8 dice, but you would be unlikely to buy hits in those cases anyway.
The last reason to cover is time. It takes less time to buy hits than roll dice, and I agree. Except that rolling dice does not take that long. If you know the number of dice, then using a dice roller is extremely quick. If you have to use physical dice, it still does not take too long to roll dice, plus, it's kind of fun. I can see, from a GM perspective, why buying hits would be useful, but I don't see why a player would ever purposefully gimp themselves on the odds just to save 5-30 seconds.
So, to conclude.
Buying hits gimps yourself of hits, since even average is better than buying hits, due to the way they completely removed rounding from the equation. Unless you manage to get extremely below average, you're already below average with buying hits. Glitching is extremely rare, except in the 1-8 dice range, but you probably wouldn't be buying hits then anyway. It's also faster, but less useful for a player, so there is pretty much no reason to buy hits ever.
Again, why would anyone ever want to buy hits, since all of the above is true? The only honest answer I can come up with is that it is faster, but I just really cannot see why someone would purposefully play to lose with their dice; as that's just guaranteed to put you in a bad spot. If you're guaranteed to succeed on a test with bought hits, then rolling shouldn't even come up; and I guess that's the point of the rule: to quantify when you shouldn't even bother rolling. Other than that, it seems completely useless.
The only way I could ever see myself buying hits is if they at least use the Shadowrun rule of rounding up. That way 17 dice becomes 5 hits, instead of 4, or 19 dice becomes 5 hits, instead of 4. That would keep it much closer to average, while still being slightly off due to the convenience and inability to glitch. That way, you don't start losing 2 hits (compared to average) just because your pool is 1 die off of getting the next hit.
So, anyone have any ideas? Because, clearly, I cannot see the point of the rule.