From:	Marc Renouf renouf@********.com
Subject:	Who burns the Karma...
Date:	Fri, 12 Feb 1999 09:07:49 -0500 (EST)

On Fri, 12 Feb 1999, Naughty Jonny wrote:

> If you use Karma to reroll a die, it's temporary
> If you use Karma to buy a success, it's permanent
>
> Generally burning karma, indicates buying dice, and according to the books,
> is always permanent. If a GM doesn't make you lose the karma, s/he is
> doing something wrong.

No, no, no, you misunderstand me (or more likely I misspoke
myself). Normally, Karma Pool use allows the user to be able to buy extra
dice or re-roll failures without having the Karma burned permanently (as
opposed to the outright buying of successes, which is always permanent).
However, in order to avoid rampant abuse of the Karma Pool for
frivolous purposes ("I re-roll my failures to try to spill the drink in
his lap" - don't laugh, it actually happened), I adopted the following
house rule: There are two kinds of situations; life-threatening
situations and matters of style. If you burn karma in a life-threatening
situation (i.e. re-rolling the failures on your Body test in order to
survive that hit from an AK-97), karma use is handled as normal (in this
case, the karma burned would refresh as per the standard rules).
In matters of style, Karma burn is *always* permanent, even if it
would have been used in a matter that would normally refresh (like buying
dice or re-rolling failures). So yes, you can re-roll your Fast Talk
skill to try to get into the bar without having to pay the cover charge,
but it's a matter of style. I allow folks to burn Karma for the doctor's
rolls when having cyberware implanted, but this also is a matter of style.
As such, frivolous Karma use is severely curtailed, because
players know that any Karma they waste on getting more successes on the
Fashion spell they cast on their sustaining focus won't be available to
save their ass in times of dire need.

Make sense?

Marc