I can recall having come across something stating that a "common" alternative to the normal rules for Adepts gaining additional Power Points, is to allow the Adepts to gain a Power Point, rather than another Metamagic Feat. My memory claims that this alternative rule was in one of the official books as an optional rule, but I'll be damned if I can find it anywhere.

Can someone either help direct me to the right place in the right book, or tell me that it's never been an "official" optional rule, and simply something from a discussion, possibly here on Dumpshock?

Thanks in advance.

Ummm.. Street Magic ? Page 31 .. but that is from "the internets" as I was just looking at a similar thing, so maybe incorrect

SR4a errata

That would be the one I believe. Thanks Mach_Ten.

Adepts can already select more powers as they increase their Magic Attribute which Initiating allows.

Yes, the errata point in question is that when an adept initiates, they have the option of choosing a metamagic or an extra power point, in addition to the power point they would've gotten for increasing their Magic. It's a matter of "2 Power Points" vs "Power Point + Metamagic".

Not really. Initiation only raises the maximum of your Magic attribute, and you can only use that once you've dumped more karma into it.
So it's only ever a question between "Power Point or Metamagic" for instant gratification. Everything else usually costs more than the initiation

Thank you. I've had to explain this a few times to the same GM before. Players were getting away with murder while I was following the rules for it. Amazingly, I still broke magic without reaching the point of Magic 12.

Right, sorry, that was me being sloppy in my explanation and assuming that someone was raising both their initiate grade and Magic at the same time - which obviously isn't always the case.

Another option is getting augmentations together with an Initiation for a fresh power point, so no new powers at all. Save up for that Muscle Aug/Toner.

But that's tremendously expensive.

A Mage can initiate (gaining the direct immediate benefits of it), and learn new spells ("new powers" in a sense), without ever having to raise their Magic rating.

Adepts, w/o that optional rule ...... not so much.

The Mages initiate and learn metamagic; Adepts can ALSO initiate and learn metamagic. The difference is the large amounts of helpful metamagics available to willing Mages. An initiated Mage can also spend karma to learn additional metamagic (not expressly forbidden to an Adept, but not as helpful, per se). Adepts still can't just spend karma to increase their known powers; without the optional rule, they can potentially run out of helpful metamagics before they cap out their initiations.

You missed the point.

Mage wants to gain a new ability, something she couldn't do before? Learn a new spell for ... what, 3 karma, isn't it?

Adept wants to gain a new ability, something he couldn't do before? Raise that Magic Rating. If you're already at your cap, Initiate first.

...

That is to say: if both a Mage and an Adept start out at Magic 6 ... the Adept is going to have to pay 48 karma to gain 1PP (Initiate once, raise Magic to 7), in order to gain a single, TINY ability that is new to them.

For the same Karma, the Mage could Initiate twice, and learn three new spells.

...

OTOH, if you can trade Metamagics for PP? The adept could initiate twice, getting one Metamagic and one PP; the Mage could initiate twice, gaining two metamagics. IMO, much more fair and balanced.

i'd even be inclined to allow 15 karma for a single power point, if you're using the optional rule where magicians can learn a metamagic for 15 karma.

As would I. But I'd limit the "buy a metamagic" for both Mages and Adepts - to "once per Initiation". Just because, well, I don'd want EITHR of them getting completely unfettered access to "hahaha more power hahaha". ^_^

iirc, the extra metamagics was also limited to magic rating. that may not restrict it as much as you might like, though

Metamagics are limited in number (or slots) to Magic + Initiation Grade.
We have always limited Adepts in the same way (and treat the Metamagic to PP Excahnge as a Slot equal to a Metamagic)

Ah, even better. (a) already a limit, and (b) the PP-as-metamagic counting towards that limit is also good.

Most of the games I'm allow this, using a fusion of the two optional rules.

It also managed to make Mystic Adepts good, instead of split between two worlds and kind of ineffectual at both.