Spending Karma at Char Gen

[Tricky110974]

Am I missing something obvious? When I create a character and I increase skills using karma, I don't seem to be spending the right amount. The costs are a lot less.

[Mathias]

I'm sorry, but without specifics, I can't answer this question for you.

[AndrewD2]

Karma is less during character creation than advancement. You also get free points to spend during creation.

[Kiirnodel]

Originally Posted by AndrewD2

Karma is less during character creation than advancement. You also get free points to spend during creation.

Actually, it isn't any less costly to buy skills during character creation that it is during normal play.

Originally Posted by Tricky110974

Am I missing something obvious? When I create a character and I increase skills using karma, I don't seem to be spending the right amount. The costs are a lot less.

I'm assuming you mean that the costs are lower than you expect. More than likely what you are seeing is HeroLab optimizing your karma automatically. When you run out of skill points (which are a direct progression of cost to skill points), HeroLab will attempt to optimize your Karma expense (which is an exponential cost ratio). For example, it will prioritize higher level skills to be increased through skill points and the lower level skills to use karma. You can see it doing this based on the small numbers next to the "+" button, it will list the number of skill points used and/or karma there.

Is that what you are referring to?

[Tricky110974]

Originally Posted by Kiirnodel

Actually, it isn't any less costly to buy skills during character creation that it is during normal play.



I'm assuming you mean that the costs are lower than you expect. More than likely what you are seeing is HeroLab optimizing your karma automatically. When you run out of skill points (which are a direct progression of cost to skill points), HeroLab will attempt to optimize your Karma expense (which is an exponential cost ratio). For example, it will prioritize higher level skills to be increased through skill points and the lower level skills to use karma. You can see it doing this based on the small numbers next to the "+" button, it will list the number of skill points used and/or karma there.

Is that what you are referring to?

This could be it. I knew I had read something in an older post about HL optimising Karma. I was simply following the character creation example in Core Rulebook to learn how to make a character. No matter what I did, I couldn't get the karma to balance. I will go back and closely watch the skills as I make the increases as described in the book.

Thanks for the responses.

[Mathias]

Sample characters from any RPG should be taken with a grain of salt - I've seen too many times where the examples don't follow all the rules, or have their math wrong.

What I think tends to happen is that sample characters and examples of character creation are written in the middle of the process, but then they're not updated as various details are changed in later drafts, or due to the playtest results.

[adzling]

oh you should know Tricky that those pre-made characters in the Srun core rulebook follow no known character creation rules (i.e. they are completely wrong).

Mathias is completely correct in this instance, it's even been confirmed by a catalyst dev.

[Dinendae]

Originally Posted by adzling

oh you should know Tricky that those pre-made characters in the Srun core rulebook follow no known character creation rules (i.e. they are completely wrong).

Mathias is completely correct in this instance, it's even been confirmed by a catalyst dev.

From what I have been told, and also what I have seen posted in the past by the writers, for at least the last two editions the sample archetypes were created before the final draft of the rules were finished. That seems counter-intuitive to me, but it's something to keep in mind. The characters in that box set on the other hand each had a little something added in for each character; a bit of extra gear, an extra skill point, etc. Just something to keep in mind if you make those up in Hero Lab.