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[NeoPaladin]

Hi guys

I ran across a guy in the shadowrun community who was talking about the characters his group plays with having 300-500 karma. From what I gathered, they have MULTIPLE characters with this much karma, which they've supposedly legitimately earned. This seems rather absurd to me, and I said as much. Others have now shown up talking about running games with with as much as 1250 karma.  To so many others this sort of thing seems fine, so I've thought that I should ask folks whose opinions I trust.

So what do you guys think regarding these levels of karma? The most I've ever accumulated was around 120-140 which was with a pair of characters I played continuously for a number of years. This was more than enough to be able to accumulate more money than the characters could ever spend, and have reason to get them out of running.

Paladin

[kv]

Yeah... I don't know about 1200 karma. That seems like power gamers with a munchkin-loving GM.

My runners usually get around 6 karma a run. 10 if they do really great.

So I would have to do between 120 and 200 runs in order to get that much karma. Seeing that one run takes one night, we'd be talking 4-5 years of playing every weekend to accumulate that much karma.

It's much, Much more likely is that those are powergamers, or people who play on a daily basis (college roommates and the like), and that thier GM slaps them with 30 karma a run or something ridiculous like that. For someone to accumulate 1200 karma means that A) They never take thier fair turn GMing, because they're too busy being a karma whore, and B) They always play the same character, thus forcing the GM(s) to do what they want.

I'm with you, NeoP.

  -kv

[Curris]

I think they are talking about "Karma" as a point-building method of generating characters. Several of my electronic character generators offer the usual priority systems, BeCKS, and Karma point build.

In which case 1200 Karma is powerful, but not rediculous.

[BornKrazi]

Interesting point Curris, at first glance I immediately had my blood boiling wonder what GM in the world would slap a runner with 30 karma a run, or even let a character achieve such a level.  Okay perhaps if they played the same character for several years, and played every single weekend without ever missing a beat, and maybe even pulling out the extra 3 day weekend here and there...I might allow a character to get around 300 after several years.  But by that time they've done already conquered the world and are playing on a scale so large that it would make Apoc (no offense big guy) look like a fraggin ant!

Thus I'd have The Wyrm himself show up outta nowhere to geek them with a smile on his face.  Or something along that line.  I mean I know personally I get bored of doing the same thing with the same guy over an extended period of time, and would create a new guy of a different archtype.  But anyway I'm getting way off topic and sorta just rambling on to myself...

That is a ridiculous about of karma (especially the 1200 mark) for a character to achieve, unless like Curris pointed out, they were simply were creating a character from the start (which wouldn't be a "god" by no stretch, but would deffinately be better then your average runner).

[NeoPaladin]

As far as the 1250 karma goes, yes, that was in reference to using BeKCS, however the 350-500 karma were characters that were supposed to have been played all the way up to that point. That was what really irked me.

Paladin

[kv]

Yeah, I saw that post on the livejournal Shadowrun community. It irked me, but I got there too late to make a timely comment.

Plus, SeriousPaul, the guy who told you that you were being a jackass? I had a few run-ins with him over at the Microsoft Shadowrun site. That guy is a jackass.

I think you should just chalk it up to some people being power-gamers. I always enjoyed Shadowrun for being a kind of down-and-dirty futuristic epic. You COULD rub shoulders with the elite, but you're more likely to spend a night in the gutter.

  -kv

[Curris]

Personally, I always enjoyed having my lifestyle one level above the rest of my group. It's just so damn satisfying to observe them roleplaying a night in the rain in their cardboard hovel, or coffin hotel, when you know you at least got an apartment, and food.

It's the one thing all of my characters have in common. They loves their lifestyles, that they do. . .

And of course, they day that they get a house, I'm grabbing my mansion, (Hopefully).

[NeoPaladin]

Yeah, I've seen SeriousPaul over at the Bulldrek forums. Not a character I really get along with anywhere.

I definately dig on the whole

Lifestyle is important, I'll give it that. I usually don't let my characters get away with anything less than a crappy apartment in a bad neighborhood with enough ramen and soykaf in the fridge to get you by - which if I remember correctly would be a low lifestyle. My rationale for that is if a college student can manage to survive that way, a runner really shouldn't be accepting any less.

Paladin

[kv]

I always tried to infringe on the lines between "lifestyle" and "running" so a runner might live in a really nice apartment in the good part of town, but it didn't mean that the corporations weren't going to bring the swat team in through the window or something.

They very quickly developed an understanding of WHY runners need safehouses and places to plan. And they started picking up multiple lifestlyes, so that they could have a place to hide when they were running, and a real life place to be while they weren't.

  -kv

[BornKrazi]

Exactly.  I generally keep two lifestyles, one for off hours and one during work hours.  And is usually located in one of the Barrens and as the local gang keeping an eye out.  Being as RPing is very important to me.

[swirler]

oh yeah, gotta have a nice place to hang. Though like was mentioned it can be a liability. One of my favorite games back in the 1st ed days was when I'd set out on a personal mission to piss off the wrong person, and the next thing i know I had assault choppers outside the window of my penthouse. Fortunately for me and the rest of the crew (who just happened to be hanging out at my place) I had several strategic mirrors and hidden weapons caches that helped out.

And to think they laughed at me for having hidden storage with enough room for a panther cannon in my couch.

[kv]

NeoP, I think the "official" stance is on your side.

I started doing proofreading for a friend of a friend, and he reproduced the karma scale that's in the front of every shadowrun adventure put out since 4th edition came around.

0 - 19 Karma : Green
20-59 Karma : Streetwise
60-99 Karma : Professional
100-159 Karma : Veteran
160-249 Karma : Elite
250+ Karma : Prime Runners

I doubt that'll shut anyone up, but I saw it and thought you might like to know.

  -kv