our "runner team" started out as three independent operators, who came together for a job and realized that they worked really well together. literally--we'd all three been playing our chars on shadowland for a while, and we all three ended up in Brainscan. recently, we decided to do the team karma thing, mainly to represent the fact that we know each other really well.

thing is, the three of us still often take jobs independent of the other two, for various reasons. which begs the question, can you use team karma if you're not with the team? it wouldn't really be an issue, except that the three of us have ended up sinking massive amounts of kp into the team pool--14, total. i was thinking maybe lone runners should be able to access only a third of the pool, or something, haven't really thought about it until now.

I would agree to that, though some may require the group's permission.

Also, how does Hand of God work with Team Karma? Do you lose a third of it? Could the team sacrifice the Team Karma and allow the player to keep his or her character's Karma Pool? Or is Team Karma unaffected?

I always thought that Team Karma pool was unique to each team. Thus, if (I'm guessing here...) Connor, Italy, and Bella are together, they use their collective Team Karma pool of 14. However, when Connor and Italy join a different group of runners to, say, hunt down a cyberzombie lost in the Boston sprawl, they are now part of a different unique team. Thus, a new Team Karma pool for that new team.

yeah, but you can't just toss together a new team karma pool every time some johnson hires you and someone you don't know. team karma pools are a major investment, because when you break them up, you lose a lot of what you put in.

I let them use team karma when working as a team, or doing something independently. They require the teams permission though. (Sort of a meta-physical team "blessing" of the mission.)

Team Karma is just so expensive to set up for most runners, that I don't think that it is fair to now suddenly have less karma pool when you aren't with your buddies.

I allow access to the Team Karma Pool only when there are two or more team members together or when an individual is actively working on a team job (such as legwork, decking, or astal scouting).

I limit the amount of Karma that can be used to twice what has been put into the team pool by the members that are currently present.

I rarely use the Team Karma rule. When I do though, I only allow it's use when the majority of the team is actually present. I've never had any player/character put anything like 14 KP into the Team Karma Pool though either.

no kidding. like i said, the only reason i care is that it's become such a massive thing.

i think i'm gonna go with allowing each member to use 1/3 of the team pool, rounding down, when we're not all three together. or, rather, that's what i'll suggest to the other two.

IIRC the rules for leaving a team, voluntary or forced, the team karma pool deducted 1/(# in group) permanently. Harsh, but the rule.

I would rule you don't get to use team karma when not operating as a team. You should have foreseen the consequences when you dumped all that karma into the team karma pool.