[The Madadh]

How do you guys pace advancement? Do you award karma every session or only at the end of a "run?"

My issue is that, while there was a run many sessions ago, mostly the game isn't run in the episodic run after run format. We play once or two times a month and I generally give one karma for showing up, an extra for good rp or accomplishing a personal goal, and larger awards (an additional 1-3 on top of what I laid out above) for the completion of major story arcs.

Does this seem like a lot? I just dont want them to have to wait 6 months realtime to see improvement on their character sheets.

Let me know how you pace your karma.

[Medicineman]

I'm lucky to be in 3 different Shadowrun-Groups( Plus Mechwarrior, Mass Effect D6 and D20 Fantasy) and we play each once a Month (this Sunday is our SR4A "Miami-Round" ) for 7-8 Hours per session
We stick to the official SR4A or SR5 Karma Reward tables and our GMs give 6-8 for a standard "1-Session-Run"
or  up to 10-12 if the Run takes two Sessions or is a bit more complicated /difficult.

with a lucky Dance
Medicineman

[Namikaze]

We play a weekly game session, and the rewards are always given out at the completion of a story.  Not all weeks result in completion.  Each story gives the runners about 4 Karma, but they can earn more if it's particularly challenging or at the end of a campaign.

[Insaniac99]

We decided that we wanted to do high level runners, so I started out giving karma out like candy, some sessions the PCs would get 20 from a completed mission.  Now that we are at the level we want to be (really experienced, decently powerful, able to take on the elite corp wageslaves if they have to) I has slowed the karma down to the normal rate where I will give 2 karma each week(or ~6ish hour session if we go over that they get bonus), then 1-2 for completing objectives, highest dicepool /4 and so they average 7-10 by the time they complete a run.

[Linkdeath]

Generally, I stick to the norm so the players won't feel like they're getting shorted by my reducing karma later. I hand it out after each mission they complete, which is roughly a story. I usually give out between 5-7 karma each, and then give out 1-3 bonus points for good roleplay, perfect use of a skill at a critical moment, something that made everyone die laughing, etc. So the full range of karma rewards can be anything between 5 and 9 karma per mission (which takes 1-2 sessions).

[RHat]

Generally, I stick to the norm so the players won't feel like they're getting shorted by my reducing karma later. I hand it out after each mission they complete, which is roughly a story. I usually give out between 5-7 karma each, and then give out 1-3 bonus points for good roleplay, perfect use of a skill at a critical moment, something that made everyone die laughing, etc. So the full range of karma rewards can be anything between 5 and 9 karma per mission (which takes 1-2 sessions).

I would recommend avoiding individual rewards; better to reward Edge for that stuff.  Progression wise, it's typically best to keep everyone together.

A lot of people are of the opinion that karma rates are sort of low as written.  Certainly, only getting about 4 karma a month seems pretty light, as it would take forever to advance your characters in any meaningful way.  But you should also keep in mind that karma rate and nuyen rate need to be taken together; if one is out of proportion to the other, the advancement of different archetypes will similarly be out of proportion; characters like Mages Adepts, and Technomancers rely mostly on Karma to advance (technomancers entirely so), but tech heavy characters like Sams, Deckers, and Riggers rely more on nuyen for advancement than they do Karma.

[Reaver]

I hand out Karma on a session basis.

Not every session is a run, nor is there a constant Run after run flavour to my campaigns.


As to the rewards, well that all depends on the what the objectives of the overall campaign are, and just how they "advanced" that storyline every session.... it averages out to somewhere between 4 and 8 karma on average... but can get MUCH higher or lower depending on just what they encounter and what they accomplish.