Quickening: A magician who has learned this power can manipulate her sustained spells so that they sustain themselves, rather than relying on the magician for power. The magician must cast the sustained spell normally. While sustaining the spell, she takes a Complex Action and spends 1 Karma point per point of Force. The spell will then sustain itself indefinitely. Spells sustained in this manner are still active and may be tracked back to the magician, but they do not inflict a dice pool modifier for sustaining. Quickened spells add extra dice equal to the Karma used to quicken them for any tests they must make, including against dispelling (an initiate may even spend extra Karma on a quickened spell—up to the Force extra—to make it harder to defeat). If a quickened spell is disrupted (such as losing to an astral barrier), the spell will end. The magician can also end the spell at any time as long as she can astrally perceive it. Regardless, when a quickened spell ends it is irrevocable and the magician’s Karma points spent to quicken it are lost. The initiate is automatically aware if a quickened spell is dispelled or otherwise ended.

While it is VERY, VERY... VEEEERY costly i regard it as one of the best metamagics.

First: You can make enchantments for/on OTHER people. If you are rich enough (and legal enough) you can get some quickened spell cast on you. For example you could get anchored reflexes (which work as wired ones without ANY loss of ANYTHING but money) or a permanent boost to attributes, shieldings, etc.

Second: if you cram them full of extra-karma they are pretty much indistructable. If you have a Force 6 spell with 6 extra karma it throws 18 dice to defend against counterspelling. And you could overcast it surely even harder without much problems.

Overall: Yes, one spell can easily cost as much karma as an familar (Ally Spirit) but rich, mundane people will always pay a lot for magical powers.

Which are disrupted your first trip through a warded area, which according to many on dump shock pretty much permeate the known universe. So that high class hotel you like? Warded. That wonderful doctor? Warded. Your Lawyer's office? Warded. Your Favorite clothing store? Warded.

How much money do you think it costs to have an already karma starved mage cast that on you? They are making good money working for the corp anyway, and are not going to sacrifice the advancement of almost a complete grade of initiation just so you can have improved reflexes spell cast an your pampered behind.

Now find a mage willing to sacrifice the amount of karma needed to produce an ally spirit so a mundane can feel a little more confident about himself? I'm sorry, but the costs associated with this are absurdly high, and no mage would likely ever agree to pay them for someone else's benefit, especially when a single event such as travel on a suborbital, or exposure to the background count many people also insist permeates the planet can and will destroy the spell, work, and karma put into it.

In some cases a focus, spirit, or even a character may be unintentionally forced into a situation where either they or the barrier must give. For example, a character who unknowingly walks through a mana barrier carrying an active focus, or a dual being in an elevator that passes through a ward on its way up. In this case, make the same Opposed Test described above (using Force x 2 for spells, spirits, foci, etc.). If the barrier wins, however, the item or entity still breaks through but is automatically disrupted. Disrupted spells immediately end and disrupted foci deactivate.

Eh, I'm sure there's someone out there with a quickened Force 1 Orgasm and few regrets.

People do mathematically idiotic things every day in real life (take the lottery for example). What makes the argument that it's not a good use of resources meaningful?

Or not, put it in your guest bedroom, and take your partners there?

Minor details.

I think that I would at the very least adjust the Karma cost to 1 for every 2 points of force. That seems more reasonable, given everything that has been laid out here. Right?

Its called cost benefit ratio. Even the lottery costs little to play. The amount of Karma needed to sustain the high force spells people were talking about, with the additional Karma costs needed to reinforce them. That is a quantity no mage would be to eager to part with, and the quantity of money they would demand in return would be one that no one would part with easily either.

It's good to have choices in a game, especially choices that are not all equivalent. Gives options for all players, each of whom are different.

I have had players that use quickening, and some that don't. It would be a boring game without those choices.

Also keep in mind some options are great for NPCs. Nothing like a recurring opponent obtaining magical powers to get the PCs thinking.

If you could activate and deactivate it on a whim, like tapping a tattoo or something, then it'd be a very viable technique to know and use. But one major ward or a hefty background count, and you're screwed.

Is Karma that big of an issue for groups?

Yeah, it works fine for legal characters. The only type of things they have to worry about is background counts, the occasional bored spirit, or wards they don't have permission to bypass. But if they have the cash to throw around for a spell or two, they have all those things covered through magical security and bodyguards anyway.

My personal view, though, is that if rules are thrown out there with the intention that players have access to them, they should at least be viable for the players' characters. There's plenty of things that are far more viable for legitimate characters to gain access to as appropriate that don't have associated rules because of how unlikely or outright absurd it would be in a player character's hands. And that sort of thing is perfectly fine. But when you throw something like Quickening out there and present it as a worthwhile metamagic for a shadowrunning character, it should be a worthwhile metamagic fo ra shadowrunning character. Quickening isn't.

I'd say a force 6 sustaining focus is a far better deal. Correct me if I'm wrong, but can you not use a sustaining focus to hold a spell on an area, object, or other person? I'm under the impression that you can.

The second option, with the addendum that the person the spell is quickened to has to suffer drain when it's reactivated (maybe with a bonus equal to any extra Karma spent beyond the base price), would work wonders for making it a good metamagic technique. Sustaining foci would still be cheaper, easier, and more versatile, but quickening would allow for things a sustaining foci wouldn't in addition to the potential bonus drain resistance dice. It'd be a hard choice in a lot of cases, and hard choices are a sign of good game design.

I dunno, is giving up advancing your character in exchange for throwing it around like candy a worthwhile investment for Karma?

Yeah, it works fine for legal characters. The only type of things they have to worry about are background counts, the occasional bored spirit, or wards they don't have permission to bypass. But if they have the cash to throw around for a spell or two, they have all those things covered through magical security and bodyguards anyway.

My personal view, though, is that if rules are thrown out there with the intention that players have access to them, they should at least be viable for the players' characters. There's plenty of things that are far more viable for legitimate characters to gain access to as appropriate that don't have associated rules because of how unlikely or outright absurd it would be in a player character's hands. And that sort of thing is perfectly fine. But when you throw something like Quickening out there and present it as a worthwhile metamagic for a shadowrunning character, it should be a worthwhile metamagic fo ra shadowrunning character. Quickening isn't.

2) It's a stepping stone to tattoo magic. Now when your quickened spells get trashed, they regenerate. Pretty awesome.

Some things that make it worthwhile:

1) Masking or Extended Masking, depending on your edition. Not only can you phase through wards without trashing your spells, you can hide said spells from observers.

2) It's a stepping stone to tattoo magic. Now when your quickened spells get trashed, they regenerate. Pretty awesome.

3) Having a ton of foci will result in focus addiction. I do not believe quickened spells count toward this limit.

For something like Increase Reflexes, it's worth its weight in gold. Like having the cyber/bio/adept power, but without having to pay essence.

Oxygenate would be a great one. Never having to worry about breathing again, barring a vaccuum. How about Detect Enemies? Stealth? Armor? Prophylaxis?

Or, if you really want to get stupid-- Magic Fingers has Duration S. So make your mage have a permanent pair of invisible telekinetic hands that can reach out and grab/manipulate anything he can see while being relatively undetectable to anybody else except other mages.

Levitate, so you're always just a LITTLE bit airborne--maybe not enough to notice most of the time, but you can control your own altitude at will. That might be just a little useful in the odd combat situation, or in combination with something like stealth, invisibility or hush to make yourself a mage-ninja.

Use it with Mana Barrier or Physical Barrier as part of a security scheme, to keep people out of a room or protect some kind of magical artifact.

How about with illusion spells like Entertainment or Trid Entertainment? This might have to be a GM call, but it looks to me like you'd be surrounded by a perpetual field of illusion--you dream it up and your permanent magical effect can make it real around you. Your clothes can change colors and shapes and fittings before people's eyes, your face and features and biometrics might shift and warp like a carnival mirror, and you might have a pet dragon sitting on your shoulder, which might become a pet faerie, a parrot, a small elephant, a gryphon, a miniaturized japanese schoolgirl or your favorite manga character sitting on that same shoulder from one second to the next.

Well, obviously you'd want basically dozens of spells quickened if it were possible.