So - my first run with my new gaming group has gone well - they were a little haphazard in their execution, and caused many more explosions than they needed to, with a very high body count ... notoriety points heading their way ... but they accomplished their goals. Now, I have given out Karma and Nuyen rewards to them all - and one thing that came up (as I expected it to) was about trading karma for nuyen (and back), since Sams want nuyen more than they want karma, and mages want the opposite.

I remebered the old rule in a previous SR edition allowing players to convert nuyen <-> karma, BUT the players suggested what might be a better/fairer and less scary mechanic to me:

Now - this raises two questions:

1. Is this bad from a game-balance/game system perspective? - that is, ignoring the in-character explanations, or whether it makes sense, can anyone forsee this derailing my game? For a start I had considered that it might encourage characters to overspecialise (so I might put a cap on, like "you can only trade away a max of 1/2 of the karma I award you"). Note that under this system I will never allow trading karma with NPCs, only player characters within the same team, so the overall strength of the team remains the same.
2. Can anybody think of some in-character ways this might be justified? - IE: Whilst from a game-system perspective someone is trading karma away for nuyen (or whatever the 'buyer' wishes to offer them) - but what is actually happenning? Should magic be a mandatory part of the trading process (possibly explaining the cap)?

Thoughts anyone?

I would agree with the 1/2 limit on the Karma <-> trade. I would also enforce a STRICT exchange rate that is somewhat harsh. This is make sure your runners don't become supermen overnight.

Now how this could be explained in the game... training. The mage wants to learn how to sling spells better. He does this by training with the sammies (Force 1 powerbolts continuously to train the mage how to sling the mojo when the feces hit the rotary air circulator , and then he can increase the power to train himself in how to push more juice per spell. The sammies get for being targets.

*Note: I would recommend that the mages in your group get the Stunbolt spell before engaging in this type of training as it could get hard on the sammies.

buying karma doesn't break the game. SR3 had very good rules on training time that inhibited characters from advancing too quickly. If anything, the time spent increasing skills made big advancements almost impossible if you wanted to keep working. The most important thing to note is that initiation through bought karma = very bad, and does have the potential to ruin your game.

I've always disliked SR3's rules for buying karma because the prices are almost never appropriate for the group or campaign, however, keeping it in group means the price is governed by market forces and are necessarily going to be fair (or you have a player who is a pushover, either one is fine). I haven't tried this myself, and I would be concerned about people trading karma for favors (since trading karma is necessarily OOC) or somesuch, so it will depend on your group and how honest you think they are. I would probably put a cap on how many karma you can exchange. Roll 1d6, that's how many karma any person can buy or sell (or make a flat cap).

Without a free spirit (who has the ability to transfer karma, for a price, of course), I can't think of an in-character explanation for how the street sam going on a mission helps the mage learn powerball, but then again, I can't think of an in-character explanation for how the street sam shooting a bunch of ghouls helps him learn how to drive helicopters better either. I wouldn't stress too much about that.

My way of the sammy helping the mage with his magic is to be a target. It helps the mage by putting him in a controlled combat environment. The mage learns how to focus himself better and faster. This translates to a higher magic as he "exercises" his mojo muscles and his tactical skills.

Hahahaha!! Ah... "Alright Joe, stand here while I try to smoke you. Just remember, I'm paying you ten thousand nuyen for this!"

Im my game I allow my players to spend 25,000 Nuyen in "Donations to a non-profit Organization" that they don't benifit from for 1 point of Karma and they can only spend up to 100,000 between each run. As for spending Karma for nuyen since I play one of the two street sams I still use my karma for skills and attribute increases and don't see a need for stopping that for some time.

I did say in my one post:



Now I know that the Stunbolt spell is pretty easy on the drain, but think about it, the mage needs to practice slinging spells in a chaotic environment. It's better than nothing.

Yeah, I think I might further refine that and say that the trade can only be made straight after the karma is awarded (IE: The period of downtime that directly follows the awarded karma), or it can't be done at all.

Not sure if I agree with the stunbolt idea, but I might just totally abstract it and give a cop-out explanation, such as:

The character 'buying' nuyen off of their team-mate is said to be doing "miscellaneous favours and tasks" for the person, which translates into a small transferrence of karma, maybe because the person buying nuyen (selling karma) made their life easier or whatever ...

The only thing I can think of on the game-breaking side is if/when players join and leave the group, which (since this is an IRC game) does happen. That could leave an imbalance in an otherwise equalised system.

Hmm ... I'll give it some more thought ... I may of course ditch the whole idea and insist that characters have what I gave them and nothing more

slinging stunbolts at the sam, while he returns fire with a paintball gun perhaps? those paintballs sting, but not as bad as live ammo. hmm, spellcasting+reaction vs firearms+will? that would be an interesting set of opposed tests...

i would say, keep track of karma total earned, and only allow a % of that to be traded, and limit it to coming from 2 ppl at a time. the trade creates a new kind of synergy in group advancement, and is just as helpful as having the face help find you a beta clinic for your upgrades. if you trade the karma away when you get surgery... that makes a scary amount of sense. maybe have eveyone else train up skills while the sam is healing from surgery and getting used to his new awesomeness.