Good post!
That limits was my biggest concern with 6th Edition, so I immidiately houseruled it to keep my sanity. At first, I was going for the "2 Edge per Action"-solition, then I figured that the "Max 2 points can be saved up for later uses" works better because it nudges players to use most Edge on the actual test that make them earn it instead of the somewhat "esoteric" transfers between unrelated Actions. Finally, I decided to just throw that magical number of 2 away and settled for this: You can earn as many Edge points as you want on any Action, but you can only save up one for later actions. The rest basically turns into exclusive ("this test only") Edge. Had a very good experience with that - itīs easy to track, easy to understand and no combat factors get really thrown under the bus. Itīs worth noting though that in many battles, the flow of Edge is actually rather dry anyways, so even the terrible RAW limits donīt even apply as often as Iīd suspected. The often-cited Jumped-in-Rigger with +4 AR and Edge from Vision Enhancements: That didnīt happen. At least so far.
However, itīs also worth noting that in the current RAW, the different sources (Qualities, Augmentations, etc.) that get you exclusive Edge may actually become a disadvantage - if you can only earn 2 Edge per turn, getting exclusive Edge on a test where you donīt want it blocks out the valuable free Edge. If
anything, these sources of Edge shouldnīt factor into the limitations.
Grunts and Edge: Oh boi. Somehow I didnīt read the full grunt rules before I started and just went with the olī "just one condition monitor and edge pool" + the new group attack rules.
The shared edge pool is nice streamlining, but then applying the same limitations to a group of 10 grunts as if they are one character? The limitations for single characters are already quite wonky, but when spread over a whole group, they turn the whole system into an absolute joke. Oh, wait: Itīs even a bit harsher for grunts, because they can only spend Edge once per turn and not per Action.
This. is. terrible. Seriously, who thought this was a good idea? Does anyone actually play that like in the RAW or is this just something everyone convieniently overlooks?
TBH I donīt get why you stick so close to these rules here. Whatīs the purpose of the addititonal limit of one Edge use per turn anyways? Choice Paralysis? That becomes an even bigger problem due to that limation, because now the GM has to figure out
which test to bolster with Edge instead of just "mindlessly" spreading the Edge over all tests. In fact, the best handling for Grunt Edge that I found so far is this:
Grunts (usually) donīt save up Edge.Thatīs it. No limits, no math, no additional tracking. Just throw it all out of the window. Grunts just always spend any Edge they earn right away, sometimes with some from of their base Edge pool added on top (+1 on a rolled 4 is good choice IMO, because it doesnīt give PCs the sour taste as if the GM rerolls their hits). The only reason when they donīt is when there is some kind of narrative imperative for them to save up Edge for certain actions: A posse of Vampires in a blood frenzy might save up Edge from defense tests to put everything into their Attacks, a group of Bodyguards might save up Edge from Attacking ("Covering fire") for defensive tests to protect their mark etc.
This is also a good solution for yet another problem: How do less-than-conscious entities like Drones, Hosts, Device or Critters spend Edge?
(I mean, they
can earn Edge. Right?
Right?!
)
