Back to the main page

Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: BulletShower <nmatausc@****.CIP.FAK14.UNI-MUENCHEN.DE>
Subject: Awarding Karma (yes, again)
Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 09:19:20 +1000
Hoi there!

I wish everyone a happy and healthy new year, little trouble, and
always enough good stuff.

Being a GM for 12 years now, I find the traditional karma (or XP)
point awarding procedure unbearable (ok, I'm exaggerating).

SR says, give 'em group karma, then give 'em individual karma.

Hm. I say, good roleplayers undoubtedly have several advantages (ie, they come
up with ideas that get things working for them). Why "punish" the
other players, and give the good players additional (individual)
karma? I've made the experience that awarding group karma balances it
out somewhat. Maybe this is a diceless-rpg thing altogether, but I
don't think so.



:)
BulletShower

______________________________________________________________________
"Gott wuerfelt nicht" (A. Einstein)
For More information on diceless roleplaying and own Shadowrun stuff,
jack into http://www.cip.fak14.uni-muenchen.de/~nmatausc
Message no. 2
From: Justin Pinnow <jpinnow@*****.EDU>
Subject: Re: Awarding Karma (yes, again)
Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 11:59:18 -0500
BulletShower wrote:

<Snip>

> SR says, give 'em group karma, then give 'em individual karma.

> Hm. I say, good roleplayers undoubtedly have several advantages (ie, they come
> up with ideas that get things working for them). Why "punish" the
> other players, and give the good players additional (individual)
> karma? I've made the experience that awarding group karma balances it
> out somewhat. Maybe this is a diceless-rpg thing altogether, but I
> don't think so.

Sorry, but I have a completely different opinion on this one. You are
not punishing anyone. You are giving extra karma to those who have
earned it. Thus, inventive and insightful roleplayers will get more
karma because it serves as experience...you would be punishing good
roleplayers if you only gave them the same amount of karma as the
mindless munchkins, IMO.

If you want to encourage good roleplaying, I would keep giving good
roleplayers a little more karma than the others. This will help
reinforce the habit a bit. :)

> :)
> BulletShower

<Snip of Signature>

Justin :)
--
_____________________________________________________________________________
Justin Pinnow
jpinnow@*****.edu
Message no. 3
From: MC23 <mc23@****.NET>
Subject: Re: Awarding Karma (yes, again)
Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 12:36:14 -0500
BulletShower wrote,
>Being a GM for 12 years now, I find the traditional karma (or XP)
>point awarding procedure unbearable (ok, I'm exaggerating).
>
>SR says, give 'em group karma, then give 'em individual karma.
>
>Hm. I say, good roleplayers undoubtedly have several advantages (ie, they
>come up with ideas that get things working for them). Why "punish" the
>other players, and give the good players additional (individual)
>karma? I've made the experience that awarding group karma balances it
>out somewhat. Maybe this is a diceless-rpg thing altogether, but I
>don't think so.
>
The idea is to encourage players to do more for the game as a whole.
Generally this has never been more than a point or two difference since a
lot of the other players are trying to do the same thing i.e. you get a
point for this and you over there get a point for that. There is that
greater sense of accomplishment when you are awarded something foe
something you (and only you) did.
I do have this nagging feeling that my awards might be lower than
everyone elses since I still basically use my old Champions awards as my
basis. Karma does take a while to build up in my game. Could I have a
consensus on a typical game nights awards so we can create another hotly
debated topic? (well it would give me a basis on how you run your
campaigns and possibly, just possibly avoid future rants from me. No
guarentee but it would help)




Ancient cultures believed that names held great power, personal
names more so and they were guarded very closely. To protect themselves,
they answered to another name, because if another discovered their real
name, it could be used against them.
History repeats itself.
Welcome to the Digital Age.
I am MC23
Message no. 4
From: Caric <caric@*******.COM>
Subject: Re: Awarding Karma (yes, again)
Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 14:57:03 -0700
> I do have this nagging feeling that my awards might be lower than
> everyone elses since I still basically use my old Champions awards as my
> basis. Karma does take a while to build up in my game. Could I have a
> consensus on a typical game nights awards so we can create another hotly
> debated topic? (well it would give me a basis on how you run your
> campaigns and possibly, just possibly avoid future rants from me. No
> guarentee but it would help)
>
Well a typical night of role-playing will tend to net us between one and
three good karma. Obviously this can vary, but typically 1-3 is what we
get for a night.

~Caric

"All the world's indeed a stage, we are mearly players.
Performers and portrayers. Each anothers audience,
outside the gilded cage." -Rush
caric@*******.com
Message no. 5
From: The Jestyr <jestyr@*******.DIALIX.COM.AU>
Subject: Re: Awarding Karma (yes, again)
Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997 10:13:50 +1100
> If you want to encourage good roleplaying, I would keep giving good
> roleplayers a little more karma than the others. This will help
> reinforce the habit a bit. :)

Hear hear! Since our new GM actually started awarding stuff like that (and
listening to the ideas of those who *can't* talk over the loudest guy in
the group), we do all try a lot harder to think, and roleplay, and plan,
and come up with good ideas, instead of sitting back and doing a dead fish
(going with the flow). Those karma awards really do encourage better
roleplaying.

Lady Jestyr

--------------------------------------------------
A titanic intellect... in a world full of icebergs
--------------------------------------------------
Elle Holmes jestyr@*******.dialix.oz.au
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/1503
--------------------------------------------------
Message no. 6
From: The Jestyr <jestyr@*******.DIALIX.COM.AU>
Subject: Re: Awarding Karma (yes, again)
Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997 10:33:26 +1100
> > I do have this nagging feeling that my awards might be lower than
> > everyone elses since I still basically use my old Champions awards as my
> > basis. Karma does take a while to build up in my game. Could I have a
> > consensus on a typical game nights awards so we can create another hotly
> >
> Well a typical night of role-playing will tend to net us between one and
> three good karma. Obviously this can vary, but typically 1-3 is what we
> get for a night.

We get on the spot points for funnies (only really worthy ones, and
normally we only manage one a session each, if that), and we get anywhere
from 5 to 10 karma for a run, which may last a couple of hours or a couple
of sessions.

Lady Jestyr

--------------------------------------------------
A titanic intellect... in a world full of icebergs
--------------------------------------------------
Elle Holmes jestyr@*******.dialix.oz.au
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/1503
--------------------------------------------------
Message no. 7
From: Bull <chaos@*****.COM>
Subject: Re: Awarding Karma (yes, again)
Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997 19:35:02 -0500
At 10:33 AM 1/8/97 +1100, you wrote:
>> Well a typical night of role-playing will tend to net us between one and
>> three good karma. Obviously this can vary, but typically 1-3 is what we
>> get for a night.
>
>We get on the spot points for funnies (only really worthy ones, and
>normally we only manage one a session each, if that), and we get anywhere
>from 5 to 10 karma for a run, which may last a couple of hours or a couple
>of sessions.
>
>Lady Jestyr
>
We tend to run about the same in our games... Somewhere between 4-5 and
10-15, depending on what we do...

Although, we do tend to get a LOT done. We managed to work our way through
all of Total Eclipse last night in about three hours.

Well, take it easy...

Bull


=======================================================
= Bull, aka Chaos, aka Rak, aka Steven Ratkovich =
= chaos@*****,com =
= "Order is Illusion! Chaos is Bliss! Got any fours?" =
=======================================================

"What the heck happened to my superheroes???"
-Me, after seeing the new Marvel Comics revamps of
Capt. America and the Hulk.
Message no. 8
From: Loki <loki@*******.COM>
Subject: Re: Awarding Karma (yes, again)
Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997 19:17:35 -0000
> Although, we do tend to get a LOT done. We managed to work our way
through
> all of Total Eclipse last night in about three hours.
>
> Well, take it easy...
>
> Bull

My players were on the same run, but more or less wiped out trying to snag
Coyote at the squatter camp. Granted they were down to only 1/2 the team
functional (on player sick and two PC's hiding from the law). :o)


@>--'--,--- Loki

/>
/<
[\\\\\\(O):::<======================================-
\< Poisoned Elves http://www.netzone.com/~loki
\>


"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Message no. 9
From: Dvixen <dvixen@********.COM>
Subject: Re: Awarding Karma (yes, again)
Date: Thu, 9 Jan 1997 18:28:54 -0800
> >> Well a typical night of role-playing will tend to net us between one
and
> >> three good karma. Obviously this can vary, but typically 1-3 is what
we
> >> get for a night.

A night?

> >We get on the spot points for funnies (only really worthy ones, and
> >normally we only manage one a session each, if that), and we get
anywhere
> >from 5 to 10 karma for a run, which may last a couple of hours or a
couple
> >of sessions.

Okay. That tears it! I want to join someone's group who is on the list. I
knew the group I was with was a bit slow on the uptake. Most of our runs
have lasted at least three sessions. And our illustious GM manages to
forget what we have don between sessions. (And this is with his notebook.)

> We tend to run about the same in our games... Somewhere between 4-5 and
> 10-15, depending on what we do...

The most any of us have ever earned at one time was 9. Our GM was aghast.
I'm pretty sure he'd have a coronary if he had to award us any more than
that.

> Although, we do tend to get a LOT done. We managed to work our way
through
> all of Total Eclipse last night in about three hours.

What was supposed to happen in that? We finished it in six hours of
playing. Which is rare for our group, either that of having traded two of
our munchkins for one min/maxer did us some good... <smirk>

And don't forget spoiler space!

--
Dvixen/Snow Leopard dvixen@********.com
"And I thought First Ones were rare." - Ivanova - Babylon 5
The opinions expressed are those of the myriad voices in my head

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about Awarding Karma (yes, again), you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

Thwap!