People were talking about how much Karma it takes for a character to qualify as a match for "superior" or "superhuman" characters in the "Fluid or Fixed" thread, and it made me think about the way I spend Karma, and wonder how different it is from what's "typical".

My main character (a Street Sam) currently has 86 Karma, and I have yet to spend a single point of it on increasing his primary combat skills - Pistols and Assault Rifles - or boosting any of his physical stats.

Instead, a lot of it went into his Electronics and Electronics B/R skills, Biotech, Charisma and Etiquette - with another chunk going into getting decent at Launch Weapons and Polearms, with a specialization in extendable staffs.

It pretty much seemed like a no-brainer to me - for what it'd cost me to get 2 extra dice in two skills that were already at 6, I could get very good at cracking security systems, competent at first aid (which has paid for itself already), and get good enough at dealing with people to be able to do a passable job as the team's face (not a Face, mind you)... as well as increase his overall combat effectiveness significantly.

However, if he was an NPC, would he qualify for that nebulous "superior" rating, or not? Are superior characters all about those extra dice in what they do best, or does having a much greater breadth than a starting character could have qualify as well? Not that I care much about the label, but I'm curious how other people approach the same situation, and what an "average" character with 75 Karma or 150 Karma might be like.

Scattered about, usually in improving primary things, and branching out into multiple areas. A little thematic stuff, but not as much.


Generally, I'd say 'superior' typically means in combat effectiveness, but that doesn't necessairily mean skills.. it does include other things -- spells, initiation, gear, cyber/bio...

All of the above. But mostly number 1.
If the character has a glaring weakness, I'll usually address that first. If not, my first karma will usually be to make him better at what he's good at.
The first 21 points a human mage gets is a WP of 7, or cha if he's not the party's primary spell caster. That WP boost is used every time he casts a spell, makes it cheaper to raise all magical skills and gets me a half die of combat pool.
Yea, I could get a skill of 2 in a bunch of stuff for the same karma, but if it's important, I've got a chummer who's already REALLY good at it.

Clearly, this is a sweeping generalization, which doesn't address several important questions, and so I'll justify my vote.

I voted for shoring up my vulnerabilities. Why? Because it's the nature of the point buy/priorities system. It is more efficient to go as high as you can in your primary skills, and completely neglect secondary or tertiary skills. Hence, if I had a character who I wanted to eventually have a 2 in bike and 6 in electronics, it would be better for me to buy the 6 in electronics, but spend the other 2 on an attribute.

This means that when I come out of character creation, most of my characters will have either their maximum intended score in a field, or none at all, and the ones that have none at all will be my vulnerabilities. So those are the things I spend first, until my character reaches the well-rounded 'ideal'.

If my character was built using karma only, BECKS or NERPS, my answer would clearly be different.

Then there's Leela

As it stands now, her primary attribute is Charisma and her primary skills are in music performance (as an active not knowledge skill). Out of the nearly 200 Karma this character has earned, nearly half was distributed among her performance skill specialisations (Piano 10, Harpsichord 10 & Pipe Organ eight [for some reason, entering the number puts a smiley in there]) three supportive knowledge skills, (Music theory, Music Literature, Music history) and increasing her Charisma to 7 (she is human)

So, what makes (or made) her a Shadowrunner then? Leela's original concept was a wiz kid inventor/resistance fighter who was focused in Rocket propelled weapons (Gyrojet & Grenade Launchers) Demolitions, Electronics (including B/R) and various supportive sciences like Physics, Structural Engineering, and Chemistry. Her musical skills were more for background colour and for a possible occupation after retiring from shadowrunning. I have to give credit where credit is due here to the GM for latching onto her background story as a plot device. Eventually Leela began to see what her true gifts were (partially through prodding by several of her contacts) and began to dump karma in this direction. Soon it became her goal to overcome her severe performance block (also where a good chunk of her Karma went), and step out on stage for her debut recital at Royal Festival Hall in London (where in a classical sense she "rocked the house"). This of course started the clock running on her impending retirement from shadowrunning. In a way it was a sort of twisted version of the "Borrowed Time" flaw where she wouldn't necessarily die, but instead would become an NPC for a campaign I was setting up at the time.

So here was a case where background and foreground karma priorities switched places. It was definitely an interesting and very enjoyable run from the perspective of everyone involved.

How I spend my karma depends on the character. Spellslingers go for spells and initation, riggers and deckers get crosstraining and sammies get massive skill sets.

I vote Swordfish Mustardball.

I dump it all in languages and strange specializations of the cooking skill. So yes, my PCs can prepare a great swordfish mustardball, and give it a title in a strange language that impresses you.

It depends on the character. If the PC is Awakened, I'd go for initiation and shore up vulnerabilities(to a lesser extent).

If the PC is not Awakened, I'd shore up vulnerabilities.

I tend to improve a few things that he's already doing. This is because I adhere to the idea that if he's doing this stuff during almost every run, he'll get better at it.

I also buy up new skills if they come up in the game. Then, if they seem useful, they get bought up. If not, they stay low. But they're still there, because they fit the story.

I take new knowledge skills when they're applicable to the story too. I also spend some karma improving ones that I took low at the beginning but are proving useful.

Most of the time, "vulnerabilites" are part of the character's story for me, so they only get "bought off" if it really makes sense in game.

I have yet to play an awakened character, but I assume if I did I'd spend most of my karma on foci and spells and the like.