If Edge really stays limited at 2 points per combat round, the most common abuse of the system will look like this once the players have gotten the hang of it:
"Hmmm, that guy already got his 2 Edge in his own turn. That means that I don´t have to worry about range, cover and armor, and I can use the hardest-hitting Firing mode without any backdraw."
2 Edge gained per combat round. They don't have to spend it, extra Edge is gone after the encounter.
I´m not sure if a) you have misunderstood what I was talking to about or b) if your answer, (especially the amphasis on
gaining) includes the official(?) solution to the problem I was pointing at.
Here´s a more detailed example, to make it perfectly clear:
So let´s assume the following scene. There´s a big firefight going on. Ronnie the Streetsam is going against 4+ members of a street gang, all armed with Machine Pistols. Because of his superiour reflexes, Ronnie goes first; and because of his clever use of tactical circumstances and gear and by picking the right target, he managed to earn 2 Edge on his attack, which he spend right away to increase his chance to hit (for the sake of brevity, Ronnie only has one attack in this instance).
Now the gangers shoot back, one after another. An lo an behold: Because Ronnie already earned two Edge, he can´t get any more Edge from these Attacks, until the end of the round. Which means that the gangers don´t have to worry about probably being in a disadvantageous position or at an unvavorable range or about the recoil thats modelled into the AR reduction for firing bursts. All these negative circumstances are only represented by potentially giving the target an Edge (instead of modifiers like in previous editions). If the target has already already earned 2 Edge for the round, they are completely ignored.
That 2-Edge-Limit is
by far the biggest problem of the edge system interacting with combat, and TBH, I´m pretty bemused about how many people (and especially CGL employees) either don´t seem to understand this problem, have contradicting interpretations or think that this is something that´s not going to happen often enough to make a real difference. It will happen. It will happen
a lot. 2 Edge is earned pretty quick in any moderately complex fight, given all the different perks and circumstances that can grant you Edge in your
andyour opponents turn. And it´s going to happen even more once people understand and start to abuse it. It´s a gamebreaking flaw in the core mechanic of SR6.
However, for the two possible solutions to this, both of which might
actually be RAI all along:
- It´s 2 per turn and not per round. In that case, Donnie could still earn Edge from his opponents disadvantages when they try to shoot him. Apparantly, it was playtested this way, at least by some of the test groups. Switching turn VS round might even be an (understandable) editing mistake.
- Another (re-)interpretation is that you can max. increase your Edge pool by 2 per combat round, but you can still get more than 2 Edge per round, if you spend it right away to stay below the limit (that´s why I´m so curious about your emphasis, @Fastjack!). In this case, Donnie could use all the Edge he gets from both his and his opponent´s Attacks right away, but he could max. transfer 2 of the earned points into the next round. This is a bit trickier to understand, but it has the benefit that it adds an incentive to use Edge right on the test where you actually earn it.
And this last part is why I´m so eager about this issue. I´m almost 100% GM, I can always just houserule this myself. But in this case, it looks a lot like this bad rule isn´t even bad by design, but by accident.