This section covers the general-class rules that don't fall into any other category. These are the ones that govern roleplaying and overall system mechanics.

1/4 Karma Points

I award a quarter of a Karma point to any player who comes up with a clever idea, roleplays particularly well, or succeeds in making me laugh with some character-related action. These points can be used (once the player accumulates a whole one) in the same way as standard Karma points awarded for an adventure.

3-Point Karma pool

Both Dan and I only allow the accumulation of three points in the Karma Pool. After the player accumulates three points, any supplemental Karma goes into the player's Good Karma. We do this because too many points of Karma usable to change the outcome of a combat makes things not enough of a challenge. Even though it's hard to die in both our games, it's pretty easy to get hurt, and we like it that way. The runners should never feel like things are too easy. Three points is a good balance, forcing the players to consider whether to use their Karma early in the combat or hoard it in case it's needed closer to the end.

Raising Attributes

Characters in our campaigns can only raise each primary Attribute once, and cannot exceed racial maximum. Of course, cyber and magical modifications are not included in this rule; it only applies to raising Attributes with Karma.

The reason for this rule is to keep characters differentiated: the guy who starts out with Strength 2 is never going to be better than Strength 3 without cybernetic or magical alterations; likewise, the character with Willpower 1 isn't going to go above Willpower 2. Without this rule, it's very tempting to raise characters' Attributes until the entire party has all their primary Attributes at racial maximum. We like to see a few weaknesses, forcing the characters to depend on each others' strengths.

Bioware Costs Essence

We don't use a lot of Bioware in the game, and the pieces that we do use cost Essence, not "body points." This is true in the published rules for magicians, but we make it true for everybody.