Replacement Characters

There are a few ways to handle replacement characters in shadowrun. Characters get replaced when they die or are jailed, captured, turned into cyberzombies, or any other method for making the character unplayable.

Option 1: Base
The simplest, but maybe not the best method, as this is the eqivalent of a D&D character starting over at level 1. Make a new character with the same build points as the other people had.

Option 2: More Build Points
While this allows for more powerful characters (eventually), the starting points are still capped at 6, so they just become a more powerful L1 character.

Option 3: More Build Points + Higher Caps
This allows for more build points and increases the limits. On the one hand, they can (more cheaply) have more skills at higher ranks than the other PCs. On the other hand, the inability to initiate might slow down mages. Still, this risks making new characters that are "better" than existing ones.

Option 4: Same Build Points, Starting Karma
This allows for new characters to have a set of karma that they use to level up the characters normally. On the one hand, they make the same level character as anyone else. On the other, karma is "maximized"- it's easier to spend large sums at once when you have large sums at once, so the character might be better optomized. To balance this, it's suggested that initiations not be allowed with ordeals during charcter creation (for mages). Of course, the limit of nuyen may make up for the increased skills.

Reccomendation:
New characters should be built with Option 4: Same build points (build the character with build points first). Then level the character up with karma. Karma can be "sold" for cash if needed, but otherwise you are limited by the wealth option you selected under character creation. Initiations should be done without ordeals (if at all).