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Buying hits???

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ScytheKnight

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« on: <01-12-15/2039:46> »
So this is something that I see over and over again... to talk of buying hits, especially during downtime.

So... how are hits bought? with what? Also what about casual game instead of at a convention?

It's something that seems to be talked about a lot, but not really understanding what's going on.
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Raven2049

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« Reply #1 on: <01-12-15/2140:39> »
With buying hits you take your dicepool and divide by 4 then round down. Thats how many hits you can "buy" with that pool. Usually during missions the only time you do that is when getting new gear through a contact, or any dice roll you have to make during downtime.

That being said I have played at a few tables where certain mages/adepts drain resistance dice are so high of a pool that the GM allows them to buy those hits.

Personally as a player and a GM I would rather see the roll and (in the case of me being the GM) see a glitch or critical glitch come from the roll.

SichoPhiend

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« Reply #2 on: <01-12-15/2147:10> »
Buying hits is a method to speed up play when the result of the roll really won't effect game play.  The rule for doing so is to divide the total die pool used in the check by 4 and round down, the total is the number of hits for that check.  (The rule is found on page 45 of the main rule book)  Some GM's will allow it's use more frequently to speed up play, others will require a roll on any check that could have a long lasting effect.  (For instance I've sat at tables that allow buying hits for magic drain resistance, where as a GM I never allow this...you can always have a bad roll)

The references for buying hits during downtime is a missions mechanic.  It is typically used whenever you need to make a check during downtime (there may be exceptions to this), the reason for this is that GM's may not be available to witness any or all downtime rolls.  I find this most used for buying gear between missions, but it is not limited to this.  For instance a more convoluted example would be...

Hermetic mage has Magic rating 6, Logic 5, Willpower 5, summoning  6 (Fire Spirits +2), Binding 6 (Fire Spirits +2), Spirit Binding Focus 2 (Fire)
Total Die pools of
Summoning: 12 (14 for Fire spirits)
Binding: 12 (16 for Fire spirits)
Drain resistance: 10

During downtime the mage decides to summon and bind a force 7 fire spirit.

summoning die pool for fire spirit is 14, buying hits = 14/4 round down.  =3 hits
Spirit resists the summoning with it's force, 7 dice, buying hits = 7/4 round down. =1 hit
Drain damage for this summoning is = to twice the hits rolled by spirit, min of 2, in this case drain DV = 2
drain resistance by mage has a pool of 10, buying hits = 10/4 round down. =2 hits (No drain received for the summoning)

mage nets 2 hits and has 2 services, then uses the appropriate amount of reagents and attempts the binding

Binding die pool for fire spirits is 16, buying hits = 16/4. = 4 hits
Spirit resists the binding with twice it's force, 14 dice, buying hits = 14/4 round down. =3 hits
Drain damage for this binding is = to twice the hits rolled by spirit, min of 2, in this case drain DV = 6
drain resistance by mage has a pool of 10, buying hits = 10/4 round down. =2 hits... the mage takes 4 damage from the drain (physical damage too since the force of the spirit was higher than the mages magic attribute)

However even though the mage took damage, the mage had 1 net hit on the binding and successfully bound the force 7 spirit with 2 services

Hopefully this clears up your confusion of what buying hits means and how it works
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ScytheKnight

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« Reply #3 on: <01-12-15/2155:40> »
Ahh, alright... So a way of simplifying things where the roll becomes more or less a formality.
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Namikaze

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« Reply #4 on: <01-12-15/2219:27> »
The roll ceases to exist when buying hits.  It's really useful for limiting those outlier possibilities with dice rolls.  For instance, requiring that a player buy hits with their Increase Reflexes spell, or when creating something.
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halflingmage

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« Reply #5 on: <01-15-15/2249:06> »
If you have played DnD before, this is Shadowrun's version to taking 10 on a skill check.

I am not a mission GM, but in general I look at the rule as a way to measure what the character can do in day to day low stress situation.  A dice pool of 4 lets you handle simple tasks in that area (one success) a dice pool of 8 lets you handle average tasks in that area (sort of the baseline for  being a professional in the skill).  etc.