Technomancer karma costs? Options

[TheWanderingJewe...]

I just got this as an email from one of my players and I've not hada chance to look yet. Is this accurate?

There’s something weird (wrong) about the Karma costs for Technomancers complex forms. For everybody else in the games, Karma cost for stuff is 1-2 times what it costs in BP’s, however for technomancers, complex forms can cost Karma 3-4 times the BP cost.
Example:
Comparisons of costs to buy stuff at a certain level total BP to total Karma
Active skill @1 costs 4 BP or 4 Karma
@2 costs 8 BP or 8 Karma (total)
@3 costs 12 BP or 14 Karma
@4 costs 16 BP or 22 Karma
@5 costs 20 BP or 32 Karma [Almost double the BP cost]
While for a complex form @1 costs 1 BP or 2 Karma
@2 costs 2 BP (total) or 4 Karma
@3 costs 3 BP or 7 Karma
@4 costs 4 BP or 11 Karma! [Almost triple the BP cost]
@5 costs 5 BP or 16 Karma!
@6 costs 6 BP or 22 Karma! [Almost 4x the BP cost]

Given that the program versions of these complex forms can be purchased for 1 BP or 1/10th of a BP worth of cash at character creation, I feel paying 5 to 50 times the program cost to get a complex form is balanced. (That is, paying 5BP’s for a complex form that costs a hacker 5000 Nuyen or 1 BP for the hacker program AND 5 BP for the Analyze complex form and 500 Nuyen or 1/10th of a BP for the program). So then hosing technomancers on Karma as well seems harsh (Note for mages spells cost 3BP or 5 Karma).
I would suggest the costs in Karma for technomancers complex forms is halved. This brings cost into line with all other BP to karma costs for active skills, knowledge skills, languages, and spells (and is also closer to the Karma costs for buying advantages or buy-off disadvantages).

[Glyph]

Some people like the karmagen system because everything costs the same whether you buy it before or after character creation. But the build point system intentionally has these uneven costs - some things being cheaper at char-gen, and others being more expensive, is a design feature. In this case, it is to allow technomancers (who have to allocate build points for a lot of stuff) to be able to afford a decent array of starting complex forms. After character creation, they have to spend more. Just like the troll who can put 10 build points to get his Body from 8 to 9 at character creation, but needs to spend 45 points to improve it after the game starts (or if he uses karmagen).

Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Some things are simply more expensive in karmagen. Overall, though, technomancers tend to come out better in karmagen than in build points (at least, that is the impression that I have gotten).

[Abschalten]

Try way better.

[Socinus]

CF's can also be run at any number with no penalty and can be boosted to x2 Resonance with a fairly standard test.

I dont really see a problem with them being a little more expensive.

[Karoline]

Try way better.

Really? Because I've made TMs under both systems, and they come out fairly close, with BP having a slight edge. Unless you're using the 3x stat costs instead of the 5x. If you're using the 3x than any character comes out way better in karmagen.

Personally I think of the BP/Karma difference as more of a flaw than a feature, but that's just me.

As for the OP, technomancers can be very powerful given time (karma) to develop. Remember that a hacker can never get a program above 6 (Not counting the bleeding edge impossible to get military programs which are rated 7), and this is where TMs can seriously shine over hackers, so making raising their CFs cheaper can upset some balance.

If you're looking to even the costs some, remember to enforce program degradation on non-registered programs, and increased trace ease for registered programs.