[Lipe82]

I approached Anarchy seduced by its idea of a "simpler system" to the clusterfuck of rules that SR usually is.
I was happily susprised with its take on "shared narrative", the Plot Point is a clever system, and its a nice innovation.
Besites, its character creation, combate rules and overall logics are truly simple to understand and play.

My question is: does it  hold up as gaming system?

Some simple RPG systems (like the OSR iteractions of D&D; or, to an extent, even Vampire) are intuitive and simple to learn but fall apart really catastrophically at "higher leves", as certain powers/stats seem way unbalanced and disrupt the gameplay.

Have anyone played Anarchy long enough to give some impressions on this topic?

[Tecumseh]

I guess I'm not quite sure what the question is as far as how Anarchy holds up as a gaming system. Are we talking about long-term progression and whether things eventually break down?

I've been running an Anarchy campaign for about two years now, although there have been periods of inactivity so we're still in the "dozens of karma" range rather than "hundreds of karma".

My personal experience is that long-term progression is one of Anarchy's strengths. I think the Amp system is inherently much more balanced than the regular Shadowrun rules. I did implement one house rule so that Essence wouldn't constrain mundanes unduly:

"An individual piece of bioware and cyberware will never cost more than its base Essence, even if you upgrade it. Cyberarms will never cost more than 1 Essence, for example, no matter what their shadow amp level is. This is to provide mundane characters an equal opportunity to advance as Awakened characters without being limited by Essence."

Other than that, I like Anarchy's karma costs. I feel like they are balanced and provide an equal incentive to improve skills, attributes, equipment, and shadow amps in equal measure. My players, for example, did not just pour all of their karma into Amps, which I took to be a good thing since that was one of my concerns when the game started.

I can't tell you if things break down at the 100+ karma level, but right now it doesn't appear to be a concern.

[Gingivitis]

+1 to Tec.

I have two campaigns ongoing for two years, with one group about 50 Karma and another at 80 Karma. Both have held up very well. No noticable power spikes, still plenty of improvement to go. I don't see a cap in sight (though, ultimately the campaign will have a natural conclusion).

I can still challenge them with encounters by use of Plot Points, enemy Edge, and Units.

[Lipe82]

Tecumseh and Gingivitis, you guys nailed my question, this was exactly what I was wanting to know. I thought the abstract nature of the amps would provide strange power spikes as the game progresses.

I can see how that rule makes sense, Tec. Will probably apply something similar.
And units is a great idea that I've liked from your resources, Gingivitis.

Many thanks, chummers.