Hopefully fairly straight forward.

We demanded our GM give us our karma at the end of each session, simply because we got tired of him giving us karma and he had forgotten why he had awarded it.
Well, and we are also a bit ADD

I give out karma at the end of each playing session, but I won't let them spend it on character advancement until a period of extended downtime has been reached. As a GM I've got enough papaerwork without maintaining a running karma count for each character.

I old doled out Karma at the point where you got paid. There are times when there are multiple runs in a campaign or setting, but till you got paid, you were on a run. Most of our sessions saw the completion of a run.

I give Karma after every gaming session, at least 1 point for survival. We did so in ED for years now and it works fine.

Finding the time to transfer your hard-earned karam/legend points/xps into something useful is another topic...

Voted for "Only to a PC that has an obvious, extended downtime break in the action" because 'a large run' could be two sessions or thirty, depending on how large a run it is! (Yes, I know, at thirty it begins to border on 'campaign', but if it's only been a week in game time...) Generally missions wrap themselves up in a few sessions and are followed by definite downtime, but that's not an unbreakable rule.

I sometimes include "cookies" or predetermined, hidden karma windfalls for players who get into the game.

For example, say the runners are attending a meet at a bar. (You'd never have come up with that one!) And I mention in my opening text that there's a new ad mentioning that Band X is coming to play. I might also include that any player who decides his character is going to see that band gets a karma point.

I use these rewards sparingly, and it helps get the players involved in the world I describe.

Another time, I had some runners spending some down-time at a ranch, where someone offered them riding lessons. It cost them some cash, and in the end, only one of them took her up on it. All I did was ask him to note over the next while whenever he'd take a day to attend riding lessons. At the beginning of one session, I totalled it up and referred to a simple chart I had prepared much earlier. So when they had to escape on horseback, the player was surprised (?) that his character jumped into the saddle with a riding skill of 3. Not an unreasonable reward for what equated to weeks of training.

As a player, what bugs me is when GMs try to buy you off with karma for their screw-ups. Like when you know better than to participate in a job because the GM has miscalculated and you're grossly outclassed, but the GM has put a lot of time and effort into writing, and you kinda have to say yes or he's not gonna come back next week. So you let the NPC's and plot devices that "happened" to show up solve your problems for you and in the end you get extra karma for being "smart enough to recognize that you didn't have a chance." When really you didn't do anything. Sure we all make mistakes. (Davide, I don't hold it against you.) But some guys do this all the time. Guys who don't know drek about game balance.

End of rant.

I voted "Depends" as I give out the bulk of it at the end of the adventure (using my own system that closely resembled that in the book), but I hand out a "good idea" or "good role playing" point now and then when someone comes up with something especially nifty or plays out a scene especially well.

I award the karma periodically (typically at stopping points) and make them wait to develop their characters until there is significant downtime. I have less to keep in my head/a record of then.

I give out karma only to a PC that has an obvious, extended downtime break in the action. It is simple enough to do and allows the player to plan what he wants to do during the downtime, even when his PC is going to sit out the next session.

I choose "at the end of each session". We usually complete our runs in one session, but will from now on award 2 karma for playing a session, additional points for exceptional danger, reaching goals and per individual karma rules. Should average around 4 karma/session.

The intention behind this decision is to reward playing rather than "getting done with it". Otherwise long runs have a tendency to not provide high returns on invested time in terms of character advancement.

I only award personal karma at the end of each gaming session because it's hard to maintain continuity from session to session. I only give out awards for things like roleplaying, guts, humor, ect...but I've never let the players spend the karma until they have downtime.

i think like a few of the above, if iever get into a situation where the gane wukk kast past ibe session, i'll award it, but it can't be spent until after everything is done (however it will count for determining karma pool)

I award (and our current GM also) at the end of each session. However, if it's mid-big run, you can't buy stuff that requires "downtime" to gain, such as if you want a new skill that requires training.