Hi all.

We're about to start our 4th adventure in DH, and the players have got some money on their hands. We're also having some downtime between adventures. The assumption is that they stick to their "day jobs" during this time.

Of course the players want to treat IH and the core rulebook as big shopping lists and pick off cool items regardless of availability. I've let them buy anything more common than Scarce (not including) without any fuss. The last downtime period they were allowed one availability roll per week. Now and last time they're in Sibellus Hive, and I can't make the argument that the stuff doesn't exist.

How to you handle / restrict purchases "out of scenario" ?

I set a simple pre cent roll of how likely they are to get their hands on something.

"You want X. Sure. I you spend your free time on it during the weeks you got a Fellowship+-modifier chance of getting you hands on it. Roll."

And base the modifiers on avalabilities, any skills or peer traits that might apply.

Do remember that even though Sibellus is massive and is likely to have almost anything, that doesn't mean the players are likely to find almost anything...

Availability is as much about finding a person willing to sell as finding the item itself.

khold said:

Well, the Availability rules in the Rulebook determine quite well how long it takes to get hold of (or search for) certain items in a certain environment (i.e. population size) and how good the chances are to suceed at all. So, some items take weeks or even months in a hive city to find.

Thanks for all your input. I reread the availibility rules and found the time constraints actually helps a lot.

I'll also opt for them "taking time off" their dayjobs and thus losing income for better availability (as in increased time).

I'm also assuming that the income rules accounts for living expenses, and if they forfeit their income they'll have to pay some thrones in "life support" as well.