Mostly, I have no problem with the Karma system for character advancement. I like characters to be able to advance, and a system is needed.

In thinking about various thinks, I realized I was vaguely bothered by the quasi-mystical sense of karma. This is not even the weird mechanics where under some circumstances it can be transferred (for example to an NPC free spirit.)

The fluff example of this is the description of PC AIs in Runner's companion. The text goes to some trouble to say that PC AIs can earn karma, but it is somehow different from other characters' karma. Since it does not seem to matter, I coudl just ignore that.

But then we get free spirit PCs. Thye have to have a special restrictive pact in order to be bound enough to the world to earn karma (mind you, PCs can earn karma on astral quests). I presume that a significant part of the Friendship pact mechanic is that Free Spirits are otherwise overpowered (particularly under karmagen beofre SR4A). But the explanation, that without this pact they can not earn karma, does not ring true for me.

It seems to make karma something mystical and strange, rather than merely a consequence of time and experience.
As far as I can tell, normal human beings do not earn "karma" in the sense of the karma awards.
But people clearly learn things day-to-day. Presumably, someone who works in a field for 5 years will achieve a skill of 3 (the 10,000 hour observation from folks who study how people develop skills.)

Probably I should just ignore the strangeness, and accept the PC free spirit rule as a necessary mbalancing act, and get on with life (or at least games.) It just seems odd to me.

Yours,
Joel

Well, it's no weirder than undead draining levels, or wizards having to spend XP to craft items, or loosing a point of CON when being raised from the dead.

IIRC, they never actually say that. The part you are citing comes from the friend pact, but the actual rules for free spirits don't say that PC free spirits have to do squat, they say they work like every other PC, who gain karma. The main thing that having the act is that it allows you to come back faster from the astral after you were disrupted. But as it's typically easier to kill the characters without invulnerability to normal weapons the whole idea is pretty odd. It's pretty odd to try force PCs to do something crazy in order to have a working character without explicitly saying it in the many paragraphs they describe how they work. I'd just ignore that line myself. PC Free Spirits are so crippled I hardly see another reason to cripple them even more.

I think I should note that a free spirit PC can use their free spirit pact power for a Power Pact. And they should start with a 1 Connection, 6 Loyalty 20-99 member, district area, vastly magical Group Contact (page 124, Runner's Companion), and charge them the low-low price of 1 karma per week each for the power that the PC supplies. And get lots of spells from the pact as well.

.... And then retire.

i did something similar. my spirit was a leader of a cult and had a life pact with a group contact with 20 members. once a day they would do two boxes of damage to themselves and heal with the pact. my gm was fine with it as i didnt have the friend pact.

Receiving 20 Karma per day (for the Life Pact) is pretty excessive in my book, but then again, whatever works I guess...

With a weeks time you are getting 140 Karma... Your GM did not have a problem with that?

Keep the Faith

i told him that before i finished my character. his words"doesnt bother me". it may have been because the karma went to enchanting more often then character development. at any rate, what ever i did, he did not care.

edit:ive noticed the vast majority of the gms ive played under let the group do as we want. while one complained a lot.

editagain: yes i admit the character was rediculous.

Yeah... I would have to say that it would get crazy powerful really quickly, and would lead to a character imbalance issues...
But if he truly did not care... Congratulations, you have found an interesting GM to play with indeed...

Keep the Faith