I agree that in order to prevent karma inflation, there should be discussion amongst the players and some general agreement made as to how and in what quantity karma should be awarded. I've given GMs karma individually and I can see where that can turn into a bucket of karma, if everyone's doing it.

It's also worth noting that I don't see this as an absolute, but rather a way to address the situation at hand: It's true of gaming in general that you have more players than GMs. On a MUSH like NS, where you have a relatively small player base, and in that set a smaller subset of people who are interested in being a GM, it's easy to run into situations were a few people end up being GMs most of the time. It's the same dynamic just, you know, happening where everyone can see it.

I understand the discomfort with awarding karma to GMs. It breaks continuity between a character's experience and karma received for that experience and can create a situation where GMs expect to be paid for doing runs. I don't see either as entirely healthy, nor the solution an ideal one, but when you have a MUSH where everyone can be a GM but only a few people are (for whatever reason), it's a way to reward people for the work they've done, in the currency that's available. And the more people we have GMing, the less necessary it would be.

Yes, I have GMed a run here! I don't have the cognitive bandwidth to do a run with a lot of people in it (a lot being defined as more than 2-3 people), and my grasp of the rules is primitive, but there you go. At some point in the future I will run another. I did not GM the run for karma, but it was nice to receive it.

Never went off track. 150%=insane.

I'm just curious, do you have any comments that don't amount to "you guys are playing the game wrong?"

Personal attacks will stop now, as well as pointless sniping.

I will point out this: It has not been my experience that people refused to provide runs because they were not given adequate karma awards. People in general become frustrated and stop running scenes and plots because no one reciprocates. My advice would be not to increase the karma bloat but to take a more proactive stance in terms of reciprocation.

[edited because it's hard to see crap on this iPod thing]

I think this topic is closed then.  No one is bringing anything new.

If I can sum up:
Ideally no one would get anything but more runs for running stuff.  Since that's not possible right now, or really on any MU* I've ever been on, we can presume people will continue to give karma for runs.

No set percentage is decided upon. 
Players should agree and talk about who's getting how much karma and when, and just nominate one player to give that karma to the GM.

Nothing else can be decided here, it'll be decided on the grid per run with the players involved.  Thank you all for those who helped.

Personally, I think the maximum amount of karma a GM character should receive is the average of the karma that was awarded to the runners.  If it was 5?  Then the GM should get a maximum of 5.  Have I been in a scene where I received considerably less than the players?  Yes.  Was I bitter at the time?  Yes.  Did I then realize how epically sad the scene was in the planning stages?  Eventually.  It was my first scene.  I received a lot of good feedback.

I ran that scene not for the karma, but because I thought the plot was pretty awesome.  It got the characters out of Seattle, out of the entire American Continent.  Would I be willing to run scenes in the future without any hope of getting karma? You betcha.  Especially when lots of runs are being thrown down.

Next, I've been on other games where the GM character actually got less than the average player.  I think it was 75% or 50% of the average karma/xp/whatever awarded to the characters.  It was a little 'thanks' from the staff for running the scene and helping out with keeping other players entertained.  I am personally holistically for?  That sort of karma award.

On a counter (I really don't know if my earlier statement was supporting anything other than my venting process):  The GM IS doing a lot to ensure that the players are having fun, they (usually) go through planning out the run, ensuring that each player gets a moment in the spotlight, and in general are attempting to make sure the players have fun.  They're risk may be less, their character isn't potentially going to be harmed, but they are running the risk of their audience not having a good time, feeling bored or left out, and generally not wanting to be a part of the game (that particular statement focused on new players looking at the game) if the spotlighting appears to be too cliquish.