This is just curiousity on my part. Assuming an elf had been born in 2011, awakened as an adept or mystic adept at age 12 in 2023, and had regularly trained/adventured, what initiate grade could he be in 2070? If the character had participated in every published Shadowrun adventure and sourcebook (i.e., Mob War), he could potentially have earned upwards of...what...800 karma? 1,000?
I understand it would depend on how high he raised his skills vs. how much time he spent studying magic/initiating; I'm just looking for a rough guess. Suggestions much appreciated.

i'd estimate between ten and twenty, but possibly much, much higher. i've seen a character based on that concept, who'd led a very active lift; he had upwards of 5k earned karma, and was grade 40 or so. i know another character who is similarly experienced, but i'd estimate her grade to be in the 20s.

I would think that it's also possible that he'd go backwards in skills and grades too. Granted elves are very long lived and maybe their brains work differently, but if he's been retired for a long time, he could find his skills and initiations slipping back down to normal levels. It's possible that a very old runner could be no better than a starting character if he's been out of the game for a while. Even Yoda was pretty pooped at the end of his days after spending several years refraining from using his force powers while in hiding.

I've been pondering a similar question... how fast does Joe Wageslave build up karma? Admittedly, most Joes would blow karma on work-related skills, some edge to make up what they burn to win the office pool, and useless knowledge skills (too much trid rots your brain). This also ties loosely into how quickly Jill Wagemage would initiate up.

Well, the FAQ does mention that "In practice most magicians practicing their art professionally for more than a few years will initiate at one point or another."

Since grade one costs thirteen karma, and depending on your definition of 'a few years' could easily boil down to about five points of karma a year. Or you could say it was 3.5 points, requiring four years or so (again, see your GM for his or her definition of 'a few').

The progression then follows that as the karmic costs for grading go up fairly fast, your karma per year doesn't. Of course, your average wageslave isn't a mage, so they can boost a skill or two every year, but it's probably focused on their job, their hobby, and maybe knowledge skills or whatever. But your elf mage is going to grade about every three years (at 5 a year) for the first two grades only, and then it starts being a long, slow progression. Fourteen years later, you're grade four, having spent karma on nothing else.

Five karma a year.. so in ten years you would have an effective street cred of five. In twelve years you would have sixty karma, a six street cred.. and still a public awareness of two. It would take you fourteen years to effectively build to a public awareness of 3, so in sixteen years people would take note that you... don't get out much.

So in 47 years of doing... squat.. you'd have earned 235 karma. This means a street rep of 24, and a public awareness of 8. Not the household word of 10+, but you'd be known, I suppose.

Amusingly enough, this 'five karma a year' concept does explain guys like Harlequin. They could just let the years flow by, and bam, they're minor deities.

Now as to your question......

I have my own questions does your runner work daily weekly or monthly???

What is the average amount of karma he earns per job???

Going on my own here:

Lets say runner A has a good thing going and works weekly average karma earned is say 5 lets do the math:
5 (a week) x 52 (Weeks) x 47 (years) = 12,220 earned karma.

Or for those less generous GM's:
3 (a week) x 52 (Weeks) x 47 (years) = 7332 earned karma.

Ok now we move on to initation grades 1 to 20 cost a total of:
Normal = 830
Group = 664
Ordeal = 532

And magic Attribute to level 20: 567

Even going with self initiation it is a good bet that your elf guy would reach something like 50+ (best guess self initiation to level 50 might cost around 3,500)

He'd still have the karma to raise skills and attributes to max levels as well as learning new skills and qualities.

How many adventure books in first ed? How long game time was 1st ed?

Use karma and convert to 2nd.

How many adventure books in 2nd ed? How long game time was 2nd ed?

Use karma and convert to 3rd.

How many adventure books in 3rd ed and maybe SRMs? How long game time was 3rd ed?

Use karma and convert to 4th.

How many SRMs in 4th? Use karma.

..maybe it would be wise just to count Karma and then build in SR4 with 450+ BP, since that is what 'converting' really means...

I would also think this guys body most likely is a patch work of scars at this point. I mean running that long you are going to get shot/stabbed/beat down at least a couple times. Unless elves don't scar.

Of course a played character will have more karma, and rightly so.

My point is that if you say 'Well, he's been around for 47 years. Casazil's physadept earns 75 karma a year (roughly) so this guy should have 3525 karma to spend.'

And I would not sagely and then say no. If you play the character, then you can earn karma faster than average. If you have a killer backstory, that's maybe worth 10 bonus karma. But I would never allow any character to claim a 'karmic income' for backstory time passed equal to what they would/can earn when they're being played IRL. If this is a NPC for the GM's use, or a 'personal character' or whatever, then do as you will.

Some of my players said 'Hey, we want to convert our (unused/retired) SR2 and SR3 characters to SR4, but it's been 10+ years, what would we get for this time?' And I said 50 karma, five per year. Some of these characters are prime runners. One of my players had a prime character that was played from something like 1991 to 1996. While he earned (and justifiably so in my games, I'm something of a bastard) a lot of karma, he never would have proposed he get his yearly average of played 'karmic income' applied over the years that we didn't really play at all.

Obviously in your games you can rule differently, but the concept of a character getting a 'karmic income' per year equivalent to having been played isn't something I think is a good idea.

Now, the question was 'what's the total earned karma someone would have after 47 years of running?' The answer is completely dependent on the GM. Keep in mind, the theoretical 'one run a month times twelve months equals' formula doesn't really consider other activities, like laying low when that extraction goes south, or having to recuperate from being shot to hell, or whatever. I'd come up with a monthly average, then roll 2d6 per year, and multiply that monthly average by the die roll. Some years you may have worked your tail off, but things went south or the fallout kept you out of work for a long time. Other years you couldn't stop the karma pouring in.

I guess I'm uncomfortable with the concept of tallying up the karma from every published adventure/mission and giving it to the character. It's highly improbable, as some of the Year of the Comet/Renraku Arcology Shutdown stuff is near impossible to survive. Plus claiming that you'd done them all would be like me claiming I've fought in every major battle since the Civil War. Sure, if I was an elf you could possibly believe me, but who stays in such a miserable job like that? If after 47 years you're still running the Shadows you need a face to make sure you're.. you know.. being paid for the jobs. Hell, if you can work out a monthly average (earned karma per run) then working out the earned nuyen per run should be cake as well. The second you hit ten million, stop. Nobody throws away a permanent luxury lifestyle to get shot at by sec guards, chased by ghouls, and bitten by devil rats.

5 karma per year. SR1 opened in 2050 (I think). If the elf guy awakened in 2023, that's a gap of 27 years. =135 karma to spend on top of the standard 400 bp every character gets.