Since Magician and Adepts won't buy much ware/tech, but only gear (as any other character), while needing XP for news Spells and Foci Binding... any suggestion on what to buy?

Is there a way to "convert money" to Spells/Foci Binding?

I had a mage that funded a Metahuman rights center, and provided semi legitimate (completely non-run based) employment to ghouls. My GM allowed me to "buy" karma at a rate of 1 karma per 20,000 , with it spread out at 1 karma per game session. So I get a nice steady income of Karma that is slightly faster than the rest of the group in exchange for doing good works.

Foci themselves also cost lotsa money. The Cash for Karma initiative is something I might look at for my group, as well as the flipside Karma for Cash.

For our group the Cash for Karma only works balance wise, because the karma income is spread out over many game sessions.

I kinda wish we could do Hurlg for Karma, I have been supplying some frat houses with Hurlg for parties and would like some good stuff to come rolling my way. (As opposed to the ugly-ones left overs that I end up taking home).

I described "Sleazy the Free Spirit" that buys Karma for Cash in various types.

And, yes, he has a windowless panel van.

Better that than an Ice Cream Truck.

Yes they cost, but nothing compared to how much can cost ware/yech (more if delta...)

My hacker's dream cyberware.. totals up to 5.2 million nuyen

Apart form karma not-being about doing "good" things more just the sum of ones actions. Cash for karma works but I see that idea naive though balance wise its hard to see a way to spend cash for karma and not get anything more back. Even helping the poor gets you a positive rep. If I had the choice I'd likely use it to fund a local gang as they will improve my area and hell make it a wiz gang for kicks. But the only RAW way for cash for karma and vice versa is via free spirits.

in theory, you could spend your cash on assorted products that simulate shadowruns (or things that are equivalent to a shadowrun). as a form of training, this could easily simulate your ability to spend money and improve your abilities by doing so.

Or by spending cash on outreach centers, gangs, urban improvement, wtfever- you outsource things you'd be doing anyway, leaving more time for training.

'Ware and tech, particularly medtech.


I know that comes across as flippant, but seriously, the shenanigans a magician can get up to with drones AND Spirits alone can be pretty ridiculous. You don't really need any mad skills to operate a friggin' iBall, after all, and drones are for all intents and purposes immune to mana spells, so feel free to toss that Mana Ball wherever you want, because your Steel Lynx won't even notice that it's in the blast radius. Hell, after a few sessions my magicians usually have a pretty tricked out ride-- Movement may have been nerfed, but it's still far from useless when combined with a Body 4 Smart Tire equipped monocycle. I also like buying specialized wheel chair drones for runs where going Astral might be unusually useful-- some forms of Bug Spirits are effectively stuck as being dual natured so going limp in a Rigger Coccoon equipped Transys Steed and having the Rigger or Hacker watch your ride can be a surprisingly effective "run 'n' gun" strategy. And if nothing else, technological gadgets still work just fine even in areas with background counts, so they should never be dismissed entirely even if you suspect that you'd just end up lending or gifting them to other players as often as not. Pooling resources and general use equipment is a great tact to take if you're in a group that emphasizes the runner team concept as opposed to the hired guns mindset.

I guess. Or you could spend money to complete your own objectives in DIY runs. As well such as paying your street gang to do X or such. But that seams a bit silly/messy. As you coudl set your objectives each day as really low/mundane and get a shit load of karma RAW. Get up 2 karma, eat soy bacon 2 karma, Buy soem more ammo 2karma.......

karma - as used in SR is just the game mechanic word for experience points.

Sacrificing money to do "good" deeds is about taking money (power) in one form and changing it into experience points (power) in another form. Don't get hung up on the word karma itself. We choose to reward "good" actions and moral choices in our group as usually they are the more difficult path to follow.

This stuff is all houseruled anyway, the OP was looking for ideas.

Sorry, but how?

Spirts can take karma or give karma to people. Thus one could run a cash for karma scheme. It buys the karma slightly cheaper and sells it one for a profit or it could sell for the same price just put less karma out there as well free spirits wan't all that yummy karma more than nuyen.

Addicted Mages and their Karma Dealers. Great! Stay out of my park!

Bye
Thanee

P.S. New spells cost money, too (need formulas).

just get every major gang on your payroll. or some underpayed wage slave. you can buy good connections very easy

There is a tonne of non-invasive but incredibly useful hardware that adepts can make use of, so I'm having difficulty seeing why this question would even come up.

Like what?

You know, some people like their bodies clean of that stuff.

Bye
Thanee

Fingertip compartment with a monowhip, orientation system, heck most headware is pretty handy.

Yes, but you will have all the useful "external" ware with... maybe 100.000? Then what?
A deltaware will keep you searching for money for a lot of time...

In that case, I want to sacrifice my money to do 'evil' deeds.

I shall fund an initiative to get kids out of schools and into gangs. I shall fund radical eco(and other) terrorists. I shall give hackers large sums of money to hack entirely random systems overtly to cause general panic in the population...

You can spend extra money to increase the chance of even finding a particular item (extra dice on the Availability Test). That Force 4 Power Focus you would like is 100,000 nuyen and a whopping 20 Availability. I know it's an Extended Test, but still.

So, pay another 250,000 nuyen and you have 10 extra dice for the Availability Extended Test. Way better chance. And at a Test interval of 1 week, way faster, too.


Then you can spend your 32 Karma to bind it!

It's harder to lose/break/be disarmed of implants. It's easy for someone to take your monowhip off your belt, harder for them to take or even find the one in your finger.

The monowhip is just an example, it's a valid arguement for all implants.

Ahmm...no one takes your weapons from you unless you are dead or unconscious.^^ And if i earn money and karma, but i basically only need one of them excessive (most of the time karma), i anyway wouldn´t waste the other part (money) just to do anything with it. Mages simply don´t need that much money, thats inherent to this character class. So if your GM does´t let you use the optional rule "karma for cash" (or the other way round) you don´t have many choices left. Maybe this problem is the reason that so many mages live in a high- or luxury lifestyle? Simple desperation.^^

People take your weapons all the time, most just don't see it as such. Going to a classy restaurant for a meet? No weapons. Meeting a VIP? No weapons. The Don wants "to talk"? No weapons.

Granted as a mage it's no real biggie. For others it's kinda a big deal. It came up a few times in the Missions even. One time you wake up in a room, dressed in a hospital gown, with a tied up school girl.

I was mainly talking about headware, with weapons as an after thought, I probably should have said cybereyes instead.

Even with a Mage character I could spend money for a seriously long time, before I ran out of things I wanted to get.

So mages live cheaper, I honestly don't see how that's a disadvantage. A well developed mage with the right spells and a set of force 6 foci, including a dozen sustaining foci, will have spent a little over a million, but can take on ten of sabs' 5.2 mill cyberpunks any day. The only thing that stops mages from being completely overpowered is their heavy karma thrust.

That is the point. I wouldn´t really spent half a million nuyen in foci i cannot bond because i lack the karma, would you?

Sadly it's true. Even if those 10 cyberpunks were dwarves, with maxed out willpower and genetic therapy to their willpower. The best they could do is 8 dice of "defense" against those spells.

Although, I could make a 200k hacker, that could kill that well developed mage.. easily.
Mage has to sleep, his home is not un-hackable.
Hack his home system, house drones to ignore the Dragonfly drone flying into his house and cutting his throat while he sleeps.
Reprogram his house to put cleaner in his morning Soykaf™
Edit the automated supply delivery system and deliver a batch of poisoned soynutrient.

And given the number of mage characters who take Gremlins as a NQ, it might actually be easier than all that.

Well, now you're just playing 'he who has initiative wins'.

Because the hacker also has to sleep, and the hacker's home is not astrally warded.
Summon a spirit to materialize inside his house and cut his throat while he sleeps.

Aaaaaah....again my motto "everything has a weak spot" comes back into play. SR is great, isn´t it?

True.

Although the poor defenseless streetsam is actually screwed from both sides.

Spirits.. are so damn good.

Sammies have big weapons most of the time. Countermeasure...GO.^^

How does the street sam stop the force 8 mana/stunbolt to the head he just got?

Ahm...this requires serious overcasting from the mage to summon the spirit which can cause serious death. So if you P**ss of a mage that can summon a spirit at force 8, you are already f***cked up.

Astral Hazing.

It does?
Force 4 spirit catches you in your sleep. Gets 1 free attack with no dodge, possibly 2 (how many rounds of surprised do you get for attacking someone asleep) that's assuming the GM doesn't just give the spirit an autokill for getting to slice your throat open while you're asleep.

Correct. You could also argument "how can the mage with his low physical attributes and skills dodge a 12D / AP-4 attack from a sniper rifle dodge 6-8 hits from the sammie".

Which is a special quality from Runner's Companion.
Not something everyone has.
Though it does seem like a must buy for non awakened combat characters.

Especially when it was made from a mile away, and the mage is thus unaware of the attack, and thus not allowed to make a defensive roll at all.

Like I said 'he who has initiative wins'

Magic resistance would also work...don´t know if it was already in the core-cook.

All at force 6 (or higher, on foci)
Combat sense spell
Increased Reaction
Detect Enemies (extended)
Increase Body
Armor

as a for example

Admitedly you need to be a 4 Initiate Grade mage casting a force 10 spell to get a range of 1km on the detect Enemies. So that's not as awesome.

Yes it is, and it is a GREAT advantage for every mundane.

Surprise = no dodge roll.^^

Well that's exactly *my* point! It's a *good* thing the mage will take forever to get that kind of karma together. If you have a mage with 2 mill and you let him trade 1 mill for enough karma to bond 1 mill's worth of foci, you will have one overpowered mage.

IF the GM allows "cash for karma" and now it ist getting a little big complicated again.^^

You still get body/armor soak.
And getting surrprise on an established mage.. is trickier than you might expect.