So, looking over the character advancement rules, it looks like a non-Awakened character will max out - getting all skills to 6, and all Attributes to their maximums - at around 3,000 Karma, give or take 10%.

What happens next? Assuming someone survives that long, what would someone do with any remaining Karma?

Save it up to re-buy Edge every time they hard-burn?

It's not so absurd, I think past groups of mine hit the 2K mark in SR3.

There's also qualities to buy, like martial arts, and edge is always a good investment for such people.

Start buying positive qualities, you should be able to burn many hundred karma on exceptional attribute, exceptional skill, buying the skills and attributes up and so forth. You should also get genetic optimization for all attributes and buy them up further.

If you seriously consider going for those numbers, everyone should roll with something magic.

In my opinion, there is an endless list of Knowledge Skills, and it is impossible to max-out, or even dabble in every single one. That right there is an abundant field into which spare Karma should be sown.

Ohh and after you bought every other positive quality in the game, start lobying you GM to let you take Latent Awakening. Problem solved.

g'heh.

and don't forget magic, that's not capped and can go to the n'th degree

Well, heck, by the last count I know of, there were 6809 languages in the world (And 2190 have had teh Bible translasted into them), and Shadowrun has at least two more, so, if you want to be Mr Polyglot, you could work on dumping Karma into 3 levels of each language. That should keep you busy for a while, even if you're learning Biochemistry and Lepidopterlogy on the side.

No, it's still absurd. Just because you handed out that much karma doesn't mean it's not ridiculous.
I mean, if I painted myself blue and glued kittens to myself and then danced a polka, it wouldn't be made any less ridiculous if someone had already done it.

I am the wondrous wizard of Latin! I am a dervish of declension and a conjurer of conjugation, with a million hit points and maximum charisma!

You retire those characters and start a new campaign because you've been playing that one too long

I vant to be Gygax! Ze level 27 Warrior Mage with a +5 Sword of...

Bah, I can't find a copy of the script and don't want to misquote the next line Still, that's ten points for using a good reference with a gaming context!

Indeed!!

That would be, "you get to be this guy!"
"The furry footed burrower!?"

One of my favorite episodes ever. Even my girlfriend quotes that one (well, actually her favorite is, "and candy starts spewiiiing out of its mouth!").

I pull out my trusty...mandolin!?

What happens next depends on..
..Why they are 'Running and putting risking death on a regular basis, since someone who's accumulated that much karma should also have accumulated the trappings of such a powerful Character already - money, contacts, gear, spells, etc.

And, really, if they don't have any sort of longterm plan..
..The whole question of what to do next becomes moot - they should continue to do exactly as they do now, and not develop.

It occurs to me that a character with 3000 Karma would have a Street Cred of 300 and a Public Awareness of 100. I reckon it'd be hard for her to get jobs and easy for her enemies to find and take care of her.

Yeah, but taken on the face of it, Street Cred and Public Awareness rules are patently broken and in need of severe GM handholding. I don't think anyone can credibly argue counter to that.

At that point, it's time to write your memoirs, and sell it as "Fiction" to the Trid Studios!

Nah, nobody would buy it. Too unbelievable.

Thanks. Read it and it just fit way to easily...

Hense selling it as fiction. Even if it goes into the Bad B-Movie Trid shows, you'll still make enough to buy a new life.

Good that you mention it, when you have 3K+ karma, you can finally start buying all those Craft and Exotic Weapon skills.
Finally, time to learn both playing mellotron and wielding the kusari-gama.

Or playing the Kusari-Mellotron.

You mean like the part where you can keep the public from finding out about you if you eat a baby every so often?

Or the fact that if you gain enough karma on metaplanar quests, people will eventually make a TV show about you.
Or if you become a serial killer, people will recognize you on the street as being a serial killer, even if you never show your face.

Good guidelines. Bad hard rules.

Good idea, in theory, but theory deintegrated itself the moment where eating babies increases your Notoriorety, which in turn increases your Public Awareness.

No matter, Street Cred, Notoriorety and Public Awareness are all "wing it" grey area, not cold, hard rules, easily ignored without any real consequences.

Not in my Campaign. Get a rep for Baby Eating, and soon you'll be getting the jobs that Baby Eaters get. Hard, nasty, brutish, and low-paying.

But there'll be Babies on the BBQ!

Well, no, because then you buy off one Notoriety with two Street Cred. At least that's how I read it.

You could also give that extra karma to free spirits for all sorts of favors.

Though I'd say once you get a group to 1K in SR4 it's time to rev the engines and jump the shark.

Play Harlequins Back.

...make good friends with a free spirit. You'll never be at a loss for a place to burn that excess karma you don't know how to spend.

I know of a couple three who would gladly take that karmic load off your hands

You don't get street cred easily, but gaining notoriorety is easy. Ask the elven samurai in my group.

Well, I think the point is that a person with 3000 Karma would already have 300 Street Cred according to canon, so I'm sure they can spare a couple of points.