An Acolyte can select a number of items up to his starting Influence bonus value from the Armoury that have an overall Availability of –10 or higher. For example, a character with an Influence of 37 could select 3 additional items.

This is fairly clear cut, however I've got one question; do you guys think this should be based on the raw avaliability of the item in question, or on the modifier to acquire it using Influence?

The wording seems to support the former, but it creates some issues: mainly that you can't acquire multiples of a simple item in the one acquisition. For example, you could only acquire one dose of your drug of choice, even if it's got a hefty modifier which would give you room for a multiple item acquisition.

However, making starting acquisitions use the proper acquisition modifier presents issues of its own, as it makes minmaxing way too prevalent, as I'm sure any Black Crusade player has seen.

Opinions?

Its 4:30 AM.

So I've no idea what I am saying. Or if it even addresses your post.

But I think it does- what if, when you requisition something that has a dose or ammunition or something like that, you get a # of them equal to your influence bonus?

I've not played Black Crusade- but if I understand this system, you don't have to roll at the start. You just pick three items and take them.

Essentially in Black Crusade you can fiddle with various acquisition modifers (quality, quantity, weapon attachments etc) as long as the overall modifier you end up with doesn't go below the required level (which is -20, if memory serves, but that may be totally wrong). However, this incarnation of the system seems to go straight by the actual Availability, not acquisition modifiers, meaning you have less opportunity to tweak what you're acquiring beyond the overall craftsmanship.

This is arguably a good thing, though, as it curbs minmaxing effectively.

The idea of quantity being based on your influence bonus has potential, for sure.

I think the key here is the term overall Availability; theoretically, it allows you to have more than one, as long as the availability isn't too large. The thing is, currently, I have seen no rules for acquiring more than 1 of an item at the same time, making it theoretically impossible for the acolyte to get something as simple as a pack of lho sticks.

I did notice that, I assume it's just an accidental omission though. Every other system of acquisition has had it, after all.