Not all characters in the Shadowrun universe get Karma. Most player characters will, because by their very nature they go on adventures and receive Karma awards for completing missions, good role-playing and bright ideas (well, hopefully anyway.) But what about NPCs? Logically, it should be possible for contacts, friends and enemies to advance along with the player characters, and for PCs who don't receive much Karma to still improve their abilities.

Also, there are numerous magicians who spend their days studying in secluded corporate research facilities and universities. They are about as far from being a shadowrunner as a person can be, yet they still need some way to learn spells, bond foci, and other magical tasks. This section gives rules for performing various tasks which ordinarily require Karma.

Learning Without Karma

This method allows NPCs and non-shadowrunners (who do not usually receive Karma) to improve. It also means that the GM shouldn't feel obligated to give out lots of Karma just to allow the characters to advance.

Example: Oak is trying to improve his Military Theory skill from 4 to 5. He doesn't have much Karma on hand, but he does have a lot of time. So he decides to learn the skill without spending Karma. The base time, according to the training rules on page XXX, is 150 days (5 x 2 x 15 = 150). However, since Oak is not spending Karma, this time is doubled, to 300 days. He rolls his Military Theory skill against a TN of 7, and gets 3 successes (Oak is a very lucky troll, and Karma pool is a wonderful thing). This brings the time down to 50 days.

Learning Through Defaulting

Every time a character defaults to something, the GM has the option of awarding one "aspected Karma point". It takes 10 aspected points to equal one real Karma point, and these aspected points may only be spent on the skill they were earned for. Once the character has earned 10 aspected Karma points in a particular skill, he receives a level 1 in that skill.

The GM should determine the exact skill learned, depending on the situation. If the character is using a wide variety of aspects of the skill, he should learn the general skill. However, it would also be possible for the character to only pick up a concentration or specialization, depending on the situation.

The maximum level a character can learn through default is a 1. GMs may allow the characters to advance up to a level 2 by constantly defaulting, in order to entice the PCs to spend some points and actually improve the skill. Also, a GM should be cautious about awarding aspected karma every single time a character defaults to a skill. It should only be awarded when the roll was made in a useful and challenging situation.

Example: Phantom has a high Quickness, a 6. He is constantly using things involving Athletics (especially running), but since he does not have the Athletics skill, he uses Quickness. This happens quite often, and after ten times successfully using Quickness in place of Athletics he has 10 aspected karma points in that skill and is able to buy a level 1 Athletics.

Collecting Karma

Karma collected in this manner may only be used for magical tasks, such as bonding foci, initiation, quickening and anchoring spells, learning spells, creating ally spirits, etc. In addition, the magician must specify the general purpose of the Karma as it is being collected (for example.. karma gained for bonding a focus may be used for any focus, but cannot be used for quickening a spell.)

Collecting one point of Karma takes a base time of 28 days of uninterrupted work, similar to the process of making orichalcum. The usual manner of this work is meditation, but different magicians have different views of the world and it varies from person to person. Many shamans use some form of ritual dancing, while others have been known to perform a ritual hunt of sorts, out in the wilderness. Multiple magicians may collect karma from the same area without interfering with each other. If the magician stops work for any length of time, he must make an Enchanting test against a target number of the time (in hours) he was not working. If the test fails, the time spent is lost, and no Karma is collected.

The character may reduce the base time by making an Enchanting roll against a target number of 10 minus the magician's grade (for a minimum of 2). Divide the base time by the number of successes on this roll. If the test fails, the magician spends half the time (14 days) before he realizes that he's going about it wrong and must start over from scratch. It is possible to default to other magical skills for the enchanting roll. However, if the skill used for defaulting does not agree with the purpose of the Karma (for example, defaulting to Conjuring in order to collect Karma for quickening a spell), add an additional +1 to the target number. Background counts, ley lines and power sites may help or hinder the magician depending on the purpose of the Karma and the aspect of the background count. In general, it will divide or multiply the base time by the rating of the power source. Elementals and nature spirits, including free spirits, cannot collect karma or assist a magician in collecting karma, due to the inherent fact that they are unable to gain karma themselves.

It is also possible for a magician to buy ritual materials to assist him in collecting the Karma. These ritual materials last 28 days from the time they are activated. Therefore, if a magician is good, it is possible to get more than one use out of them. The materials cost 1000 ¥ per rating point. Every rating point reduces the target number of the enchanting roll by 1.

If the ritual materials expire before the character has finished gaining a Karma point (for example, a character gets one Karma point in 14 days but the second one will take him 28 days.. the ritual materials will expire after the 14th day of collecting the second Karma point) the character has two options. His first choice is to immediately run out and buy another set of ritual materials (at least at the same rating as the first set) and continue where he left off. However, this will require him to make an Enchanting roll against a TN equal to the time he was away (as explained above) or else he will lose the time spent gaining the current Karma point. The character's second option is to simply give up and start over again, losing the time he'd invested before the materials expired.

Example: Wraith has bought a rating 5 power focus, but unfortunately it's been a slow couple of months in the shadowrunning business and he finds himself short on Karma. He needs an additional 10 Karma points in order to bond to the focus. Wraith has an Enchanting skill of 4, and he decides to use it to collect Karma for the focus. For the first point of Karma, he rolls his Enchanting against a target number of 6 (10 minus his Grade of 4 = 6) and gets 2 successes. It takes him 14 days of meditation to collect the first point of Karma for the focus. He cannot spend this point on anything else, it must be used for bonding to the focus.

After collecting the first point, Wraith decides that this is taking far too long. He heads down to the local talismonger shop and buys some ritual Karma materials at rating 4. These materials will last for 28 days, and will subtract 4 from his Karma collecting TN, making it a 2. Wraith collects the second point of Karma in 7 days, and from then on he is rolling right along. He buys some more ritual materials when the first set runs out, and in about three months he has collected all 10 points of Karma.