One part of the rules which isn't 100% clear is picking up additional equipment for new characters. There are a couple of conflicting references, so I hit up Nathan Dowdell on Facebook (and he's reposted the same answer elsewhere, including the Modiphius forums). He said: For pre-game acquisitions, my inclination is for the GM to set aside a particular amount of game time as "pre-campaign prep time", during which characters may attempt to acquire any extra items they want - this might be a few days, a week, or a month, at the GM's discretion. Heat generated, Cashflow lost, and Shortfalls suffered during this time carry over into the first session. This has the advantage of not requiring an entirely separate set of acquisitions rules purely for character creation. Alternately, you can try something a little more stratified with no rolling - though this is entirely off the top of my head: A character may choose any number of items (or a finite number, set by the GM) to acquire pre-game. Each item costs a number of Assets based on the following factors - 1 per Restriction rating (so, Restriction 2 = 2 Assets), 1 if the Cost exceeds Earnings, and 1 per Shortfall the acquisition's Cost would inflict (use an average of the Cost here, rounded to the nearest whole number: each combat die is 0.5, a die with Tariff 1 is 0.667 per die, a die with Tariff 2 is 0.833, a die with Tariff 3 is 1, so an item with a Cost of 2+4 dice, Tariff 1 is 4.667, rounded to 5).
Follow up question for this one: Do you limit Cashflow for this? Say my PC has an Earnings of 2 and a Cashflow of 7, and purchases a single Restriciton 2 total cost 7 item. This will cost 5 Assets (2 per restriction, 1 because the cost exceeds earnings, and 2 for the two Shortfalls inflicted). Can that same character then spend additional assets to purchase additional items? Noting that you're not allowed to take your Cashflow below 0.
If you are using that variant, then I would certainly not further restrict it in that way. Buying directly using assets like that is VASTLY more "expensive" than simply hanging out for an hour at the beginning of the first session and getting deliveries of the equipment you need by buying using the standard system in play.
