I am curious how much karma an average Shadowrun character earns before it is retired/killed.

in my game(s), it has been 0-80ish... depends on when they get "retired" (killed) or if the player decides they want to play another character. Depending on the length of the run, will determine how much karma they get (they get most of it from roleplaying).

0-100 - About half chars change because player gets bored/dislikes own char and the other half is casualties. So far all of the chars that got really high have retired instead of ending up dead.

51-100, occasionally more. Stupid real-life, character changes, Earthdawn, new campaigns...

We finished up a two year SR3 campaign earlier this year and the average TKE (total karma earned) was 234.

Now that we're in SR4, the average will be much lower (probably around half when we reach two years).

Most of our games end way too quickly, as we move on to something else (that ends equally fast). I've played in two long running SR games, ending with 170-ish karma (SR3), and 86 karma (SR4).

-Clay

In our first session, a few of my guys have gotten over 20. Yes, it's getting toned down, but considering the hell I put them through as a newbie GM, it's not so bad.

We've only been able to keep a game going for about 21-50 karma before people get bored and quit playing. Doesn't help that my group only got together recently during summer break anyways, but that's the deal.

My group got to about 120 karma per person in our SR4 game before we ultimately got to an end-game and we called the campaign quits. I've been on GM hiatus since April, and now we're looking to kick off another SR4 campaign. We had been playing for two years, roughly every other weekend. I think that's not a bad rate of karma accumulation myself.

About 100-150 Is what mine run at. But i tend to give out, and receive, a bit more karma than average. I have yet to actually have one of my characters die on me,... permanently . I have mostly retired my chracters when they actually would retire. ie. the crazy dj/adept/pornomancer getting enough money to sustain a permenant luxury lifestyle AND his dependent sister. (This particular campaign ran for 3 moths at 3-4 days a week for 8 hours (Crazy free time during the summer and beginning semester of college) and i ended up racking 200+ karma that particular game)