IMO, augments are the heart of the system. By limiting augments other than weapons and armor, you induce several effects:
-Players will focus on raising a few abilities and their equipment rather than spread
out their abilities(making narrowly focused characters)
-After a point, there will be no reason to buy new abilities or equipment with Hero
Points, starting at 13, its easier to raise an existing trait.
-Action will be more focused on "realism" instead of cinematic
Any or all of these may be either useful or a hinderance to the style of play you are hoping to engender.
Personally, I have no limit on the augments. For obvious augments- I don't discuss them, they're just ok'd by me. For more out there ones, the player has to NARRATE how it helps in a cool fashion, so even though it eats up a little time, it makes things exciting and fun. This also limits players on how many they want to use at one point, and how far they can stretch it. They are limited by their ability to create plausible uses, and how far they can narrate it. Good players roll the bunch of augments into a single quick narration, layered together in one bunch.
Second, extended contests are very rare in my campaign. Because folks are narrating augments during simple contests, that's usually good enough. If I run an extended contest, I expect it to be a climactic battle or contest that will eat up about a third of the session time(usually 2-3 hour sessions).
Something a LOT of people have discovered- with unlimited augments, it pays to have a well rounded hero with a lot of different abilities more than to be a focused combat monster or min-maxed character. It also allows me to encourage the focus on things that matter in my style of play, which is those relationships. It's one thing to cast a spell, but the spell gets more powerful when you are doing it to save your village, wife, brother, daughter, and asking for the one boon your God has sworn to grant you...
Chris
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