Fearless Leader of shadowrn.understairs.nl * Triangle Virtuoso <-
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998 <-
Is it just me, or does 1e's use of Good Karma for re-rolls & such
make way more sense than the Karma Pool form 2 & 3e? (or have I
misread something?)
Is it just me, or does 1e's use of Good Karma for re-rolls & such
make way more sense than the Karma Pool form 2 & 3e? (or have I
misread something?)
On Wednesday, February 21, 2018 at 17:17:43 UTC-5, Gurth wrote:
Is it just me, or does 1e's use of Good Karma for re-rolls & such
make way more sense than the Karma Pool form 2 & 3e? (or have I
misread something?)
I like having players spend Good Karma rather than Karma Pool.
Good Karma you can burn as much of it as you have/need to get the job
done, but every point of it hurts... after leaning on that mechanic a
few times to dodge assault cannon shots or make sure a doc brings you
back from the dead, you realize that you could have bumped up a skill
level / stat / learned some spells / etc.
Karma Pool is safe, you're not really paying a cost for getting away
with pushing your limits if those points just come back every game
session. At the same time you lose the mechanic that lets you dig
yourself out of those really deep holes.
There's nothing quite as Shadowrun as earning a pile of Karma one week
saving a petting zoo from being bulldozed, and spending all of it the
next on successes for some incredibly selfish paydata run.
I've always found that character advancement was a difficult issue with >Shadowrun because of karma itself.
Begining Shadowrun characters come out pretty potent already - my
freshly minted Troll street samurai is going to be really threatened by
a fellow world-class fighter, if we go by the way skill ratings are >represented in 3rd edition.
If we burn good karma, we're stressing utility and downplaying
spending points to improve your stats. The downside is that someone who
uses karma just for stat increases quickly being stolen outstrip his >teammates in a way that feels unnatural, hard to explain using the
story of the game.
If we use karma pool then we are on a path and potentially a race to
the end where high-karma characters cannot be challenged and "retire"
or are somehow removed from play.
As a DM, I've used the karma pool system as I ran 2nd and 3rd. I found
myself turning to other means of character advancement - gear,
contacts, story-related stuff - rather than the karma system to try to
create that feeling of advancement and accomplishment.
It's still something I struggle with, even more so when you have a
mage in the party and the initiation and metamagic rules come into
play.
I guess that's my last gripe, karma is a universal mechanic with
unequel use, I find that to be a bad piece of design.
Is it just me, or does 1e's use of Good Karma for re-rolls & such make
way more sense than the Karma Pool form 2 & 3e? (or have I mis-read >something?)
On Wednesday, February 28, 2018 at 10:10:16 AM UTC-5, Gurth wrote:
Is it just me, or does 1e's use of Good Karma for re-rolls & such
make way more sense than the Karma Pool form 2 & 3e? (or have I
misread something?)
Yes and no.
Fearless Leader of shadowrn.understairs.nl * Triangle Virtuoso <-
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998 <-
The entire Karma model in 3e along with the literal interpretation of
"magic and metahumans" are key reasons why I play 5e instead.
Fearless Leader of shadowrn.understairs.nl * Triangle Virtuoso <-
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998 <-
weberm@polaris.net wrote:
On Wednesday, February 28, 2018 at 10:10:16 AM UTC-5, Gurth wrote:
Is it just me, or does 1e's use of Good Karma for re-rolls & such
make way more sense than the Karma Pool form 2 & 3e? (or have I
misread something?)
Yes and no.
I'd love to hear your reasoning - I've not played 1e enough to form a
valid opinion
Ubiquitous schrieb:
gurth@xs4all.nl wrote:
weberm@polaris.net wrote:
On Wednesday, February 28, 2018 at 10:10:16 AM UTC-5, Gurth wrote:
Is it just me, or does 1e's use of Good Karma for re-rolls & such
make way more sense than the Karma Pool form 2 & 3e? (or have I
misread something?)
Yes and no.
I'd love to hear your reasoning - I've not played 1e enough to form a >>>valid opinion
In the first edition, there was no differentiation for karma, so karma
for rerolls was deducted from karma used for improving your char. In
2nd edtion, you'll always have Good Karma but I found that once you
start to reach double-digits, it becomes harder to challenge the
players -- and don't get me started on Team Karma Pools. >:-(
The secret to that is getting your players to burn karma. If they get
to 9 without burning any the game is too easy. Adversity is the spice
of life.
gurth@xs4all.nl wrote:
weberm@polaris.net wrote:
On Wednesday, February 28, 2018 at 10:10:16 AM UTC-5, Gurth wrote:
Is it just me, or does 1e's use of Good Karma for re-rolls & such
make way more sense than the Karma Pool form 2 & 3e? (or have I
misread something?)
Yes and no.
I'd love to hear your reasoning - I've not played 1e enough to form a
valid opinion
In the first edition, there was no differentiation for karma, so karma
for rerolls was deducted from karma used for improving your char. In
2nd edtion, you'll always have Good Karma but I found that once you
start to reach double-digits, it becomes harder to challenge the
players -- and don't get me started on Team Karma Pools. >:-(
gurth@xs4all.nl wrote:
fketchum@earthlink.net wrote:
The entire Karma model in 3e along with the literal interpretation of >>>"magic and metahumans" are key reasons why I play 5e instead.
"literal interpretation of 'magic and metahumans'"? Could you go into >>further detail on what you mean there?
Sure. Is a Shadowrun Ork actually an "ork", or is he a supernaturally >genetically altered human with a street-slang label? In 1e, it's clear
he's the latter. In 3e, they vibe the whole presentation as if he's an
orc in 2050.
fketchum@earthlink.net wrote:
The entire Karma model in 3e along with the literal interpretation of >>"magic and metahumans" are key reasons why I play 5e instead.
"literal interpretation of 'magic and metahumans'"? Could you go into
further detail on what you mean there?
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