[ultimateseahawk]

I play with a group that hops between SR and D&D.

I prefer SR but one thing D&D has that SR does not is a really detailed character progression system with it's leveling.

SR falls short in this regard, in my opinion.

I'm wondering if any of you experienced GMs have any little tweaks you've added beyond nuyen and karma to, for lack of a better term, reward or motivate players in game? Stuff beyond the books that you've developed over time.

Thanks

[Mason]

Free knowledge skills, more contacts, favors owed, etc.

[Zilfer]

Well I'm not quite sure what you mean. The kinda point of SR is to  be open ended. Hell if you play long enough or your into throwing loads of EXP/Karma the way of the character's it not that hard to "level up" per say.

I remember first being described Shadowrun when I wasn't sure it would be fun, i've never been able to imagine a system that would work with guns well. I always thought in terms of DnD's lots of health gun does this much damage and at some point it would be rediculous how many bullets you can take. anyways off topic main point. When I heard about Shadowrun it was described to me that there are no "Classes" you make your character how you want. It was very appealing to me once I started making it. Confusing, I didn't know half what I was doing, and I may have built my character slightly illegaly within the BP but i know i'm pretty close.

It's the same with progression in shadowrun which needless to say seems very slow, however! you can alter that by giving out more Karma. And it gives the PC's the options to take their character go in which ever direction they want to go. I mean they may not always kick the most ass sometimes when they make their character as is with my GF. I resist trying to influence how she makes most of her characters because I often want to optimize or at least improve existing things.

In fact most recently in a DnD game I just started I rolled up a level 10 fighter. The DM gave us free range to do whatever we wanted well I've never played a straight up fighter, and I decided I wasn't going to worry about stats whatever i got was what i got and the highest one I decided was going into Charisma. Got an 18 so I put i there. (>.> it's 20 Charisma now..... <.< don't ask)

Anyways, there's also things you can do like hand out money so they can buy items to "upgrade" their character kinda like leveling up or create homebrew items.

Two sessions ago I handed out what i consider to be a bad ass katana blade. It's a katana blade that has a heavy field around it (probably magnetic) that deflects bullets slightly. I gave it a +2 dodge bonus if your getting shot at with bullets. I came up with the item because I would love to have an item like that. (most of the time i give away items i want for my character lol)

So I think there are plenty of incentives you could drop, they could "pick them up on the mission" like the guy who got that katana sword in my game. They happened to be in a companies territory and found that on the way out. It's a test version and he could probably sell it for a quite a bit of money but he wants it because it's unique. xD

(hopefully that answered your question?)


Edit: I saw the besides Nuyen and Karma in your post when i reread so this might not answer your questino at all...    well maybe the unique item i mentioned might help. *shrugs*

[FastJack]

Gear and Money.

Allows the players to go under the knife and cyber up. For the Karma players (Mages, Adepts and Technomancers [oh, my!]), you can put the optional Karma for Nuyen house-rule into place.

[Zilfer]

Gear and Money.

Allows the players to go under the knife and cyber up. For the Karma players (Mages, Adepts and Technomancers [oh, my!]), you can put the optional Karma for Nuyen house-rule into place.

Does that work reverse in your house Fastjack? For example "buying Karma" with your Nuyen? <.< Just a thought.

[FastJack]

Gear and Money.

Allows the players to go under the knife and cyber up. For the Karma players (Mages, Adepts and Technomancers [oh, my!]), you can put the optional Karma for Nuyen house-rule into place.

Does that work reverse in your house Fastjack? For example "buying Karma" with your Nuyen? <.< Just a thought.

We really haven't gotten to that point yet in the game. So far, everybody's been pretty happy with the gear and Karma in the adventures.

I should also say that I'm running a campaign that has a complete adventure every time we meet, so they meet the Johnson at the beginning and are wrapping up the mission at the end. I've been averaging 10-15 Karma and 15,000¥-25,000¥ (each team member) a session. If it seems a bit high, it's because I'm intending it that way. The story's pretty "high-level" (i.e., very powerful foes) and they are playing the missions like Leverage/A-Team (high on planning for every contingency).

[rasmusnicolaj]

Karma and nuyen are the rewards (that and surviving).

Instead of gaining a few predefined powers at certain preordained times you just slowly grow and develop your character. D&D is just a lot of sudden insight or "your power has grown". I think the SR way is much more realistic. You can get anything with karma and nuyen so reward extra if you feel like it.

Regards
Rasmus

[Preacher]

The problem I've seen in most of the different tables I've sat at is a lot of GMs don't give sufficient downtime to their players.  There isn't time to train, to go under the knife, to go on astral quests, to code your own software, to research your own spells, to customize your own weapons or vehicles, to create your own foci, and so on and so forth.  Some of those things take months at a time.  But instead of allowing for that, it's just one crazy mission after another.  Downtime is when all the real improvements to a character occur, so skipping that is a pretty serious setback.

That said, I personally hate systems that use the class and level dynamic for character advancement.  It's nearly always silly and unbelievable, and you're hard pressed to find any real examples of it in fantasy/sci-fi literature or films.

[Zilfer]

The problem I've seen in most of the different tables I've sat at is a lot of GMs don't give sufficient downtime to their players.  There isn't time to train, to go under the knife, to go on astral quests, to code your own software, to research your own spells, to customize your own weapons or vehicles, to create your own foci, and so on and so forth.  Some of those things take months at a time.  But instead of allowing for that, it's just one crazy mission after another.  Downtime is when all the real improvements to a character occur, so skipping that is a pretty serious setback.

That said, I personally hate systems that use the class and level dynamic for character advancement.  It's nearly always silly and unbelievable, and you're hard pressed to find any real examples of it in fantasy/sci-fi literature or films.

I would say it depends on how quickly you level up in your games. I believe my Dnd group probably plays a slower leveling game.

Anywhere from 400exp-700exp a session. Our "Main characters" have been played over a year and the highest have reached level 7 not long ago. Has been interesting to say the least.

[Kontact]

Swag isn't just nuyen or gear.

You could let your players sponsor a gang.  Take over an abandoned industrial park.  Buy and grow a politician.

There are all sorts of ways to "level up" your game.

[Kobold]

The problem I've seen in most of the different tables I've sat at is a lot of GMs don't give sufficient downtime to their players.  There isn't time to train, to go under the knife, to go on astral quests, to code your own software, to research your own spells, to customize your own weapons or vehicles, to create your own foci, and so on and so forth.  Some of those things take months at a time.  But instead of allowing for that, it's just one crazy mission after another.  Downtime is when all the real improvements to a character occur, so skipping that is a pretty serious setback.

I'd like to, but I started GMing a group starting 2070 and telling the emergence story in a timeframe which allows long downtimes seems extraordinarily difficult. Except of prolonging it.

[ultimateseahawk]

Thanks. Good stuff guys.

Hope it didn't come off like I was complaining about the game. I'm just always curious what other stuff GMs come up with to keep their games fresh.

[CanRay]

It's the loot, loot, loot that make the boys get up and shoot.

[Phylos Fett]

The problem I've seen in most of the different tables I've sat at is a lot of GMs don't give sufficient downtime to their players.  There isn't time to train, to go under the knife, to go on astral quests, to code your own software, to research your own spells, to customize your own weapons or vehicles, to create your own foci, and so on and so forth.  Some of those things take months at a time.  But instead of allowing for that, it's just one crazy mission after another.  Downtime is when all the real improvements to a character occur, so skipping that is a pretty serious setback.

This was even worse in the older editions, where you had Deckers that wanted to upgrade their Decks and Programs - those things took forever to do at the higher ranks. One of my players was frustrated that the team wanted to run all the time, and he wanted downtime to improve...

[Zilfer]

The problem I've seen in most of the different tables I've sat at is a lot of GMs don't give sufficient downtime to their players.  There isn't time to train, to go under the knife, to go on astral quests, to code your own software, to research your own spells, to customize your own weapons or vehicles, to create your own foci, and so on and so forth.  Some of those things take months at a time.  But instead of allowing for that, it's just one crazy mission after another.  Downtime is when all the real improvements to a character occur, so skipping that is a pretty serious setback.

This was even worse in the older editions, where you had Deckers that wanted to upgrade their Decks and Programs - those things took forever to do at the higher ranks. One of my players was frustrated that the team wanted to run all the time, and he wanted downtime to improve...

Depends do they earn enough to do their lifestyles? I'm not sure my group makes enough to stop running though I haven't started keeping track of time in my games yet so who knows. xD