Karma - a lightweight diceless RPG system
Character Creation
==================
0. Determine a concept.
A concept can be as simple as a two
word description of the character. Things like "Crusading
Journalist", "Arrogant Doctor", "Honest Cop", "Mob Hitman",
"CIA assassin", or "NSA codebreaker" are all examples of
concepts.
1. Determine an order for the Attribute Groups.
There are three Attribute Groups: Body, Mind and Spirit.
These should be ranked in order - Primary, Secondary and Tertiary,
and the rankings should be based on the character concept.
2. Determine Attribute Rankings.
Each Attribute Group contains two Attributes:
Body - Might, Finesse
Mind - Reason, Intuition
Spirit - Willpower, Charm
For the character's Primary Attribute Group, choose one Attribute
to be ranked Excellent. The other receives a rank of Good.
For the character's Secondary Attribute Group, choose one Attribute
to be ranked Good. The other receives a rank of Average.
For the character's Tertiary Attribute Group, choose one Attribute
to be ranked Poor. The other receives a rank of Average.
These Attribute designations may be shifted based on character
concept and player desires. You may shift any Attribute by one
rank downward to improve another by one rank upward. No Attribute may
be ranked higher than Outstanding and at least one Attribute must be
ranked Poor or worse and another must be ranked Excellent or better.
3. Determine Traits.
Traits are divided into three different types, Skills, Knowledges and
Merits. All Traits are measured by Rank in the same manner as Attributes.
By default, characters are considered to have the basic Traits for an
average member of their culture at an Average level of competency (for
example, a 20th century American would be able to read and write English
with Average competency, drive a car with Average competency, operate a
computer, etc.).
The distinction between Merit, Skill and Knowledge is somewhat gray.
In general, a Knowledge represents some area of expertise that a person
can study; academic areas such as Mathematics, History and Physics
are all examples of Knowledges. Any area of expertise that measures how
much a character knows about a particular area or field should be considered
a Knowledge.
Skills, by contrast, measure a character's ability to perform actions.
Driving, Acrobatics, Brawling and Athletics are all examples of Skills.
To determine whether something is a Knowledge or a Skill, ask yourself if
you would normally use the Trait to determine if you know a fact
(Knowledge) or to determine if you can perform an action (Skill). For
example, Hacking falls into the gray area between Knowledge and Skill, but
since Hacking can be used in an active manner, it should be treated as a
Skill rather than a Knowledge.
Merits are the final class of Trait. Merits are facets of a character
that cannot really be trained, but instead come due to a character's
background or events in the character's history. For example, Wealth and
Contacts are two examples of Merits that any character might have access
to regardless of the game genre. Psychic Aptitude or Super Strength might
be Merits available to characters in a supernatural or super-powered
setting. More than other Traits, Merits should be selected with GM
approval.
A player should designate one Trait as their character's "Tag" --
a Trait tied directly to the character concept. The character has a
rank of Outstanding for that Trait. The player should choose 3 additional
Traits for the character - one of these will have a rank of Excellent and
the two others as Good.
In addition, one Trait should be designated as the character's "Tank Trait".
The Tank Trait is something that the character just can't get the hang of,
and should be tied to the character concept. This Trait has a rank of
Poor by default and will probably never be improved.
A character can improve another Trait by taking a Trait that another person
might accomplish with Average competency and making it a "Tank Trait".
For example, turning Driving into the character's "Tank Trait" allows
an additional Good Trait for that character.
4. Equipment.
A character can be assumed to have any piece of Equipment that an average
person might have access to given their character concept. In addition,
if the character has a Merit that affects access to resources (such as a
Wealth Trait), they can be assumed to have access to any piece of equipment
that a character of their resources might be able to access.
For example, in a 21st century campaign set in the Midwest, a character
with no special resource Traits might be assumed to have a car or truck,
an apartment or small house, etc. A character with a Wealth Trait of
Good in the same campaign might have access to a nice car and a large
house, and has no problems buying airline tickets for far-flung
global investigations. A character with a Wealth Trait of Excellent or
better might live in a mansion and have access to a private jet.
Equipment outside the norm for a campaign can be taken by taking it as
a Merit. For example, a character who has a magic shotgun that only
affects ghosts would need to take an Equipment Merit for it. Additionally,
if the character wants a "normal" piece of equipment that is normally only
available at a higher Wealth level he can take a Good Merit to have that
piece of Equipment (for example, a tricked out computer system or a car
with a souped up engine). Again, Equipment choices should be reviewed
by the GM.
The Attributes
==============
Body
Might
Finesse
Mind
Reason
Intuition
Spirit
Willpower
Charm
The Ranking Scale
=================
Patheic
Poor
Average
Good
Excellent
Outstanding
Incredible
Spectacular
Amazing
Phenomenal
Karma Pool
==========
Certain characters (including all PCs) have a Karma Pool. This is a score
that is ranked from 0 to 10 that fluctuates as the character performs actions.
Not all characters have a Karma Pool -- in general, any character who is
important for a dramatic conflict will have a Karma Pool and any character who
can be considered a "mook" will NOT have a Karma Pool. All PCs start with a
Karma Pool of 5.
Conflict Resolution
===================
Any Trait check must be framed in terms of a Conflict. A Conflict can
occur between two characters or between the character and the world.
Character-vs-Character conflicts are called Opposed Conflicts while
Character-vs-The World Conflicts are known as Unopposed Conflicts.
When a player proposes a Conflict (opposed or unopposed), he must first
describe the Goal of his action and the Method he is using to achieve
his Goal. The Goal is what the player hopes to accomplish by performing this
action while the Method is a combination of Trait and Attribute that will be
used to achieve the Goal.
Ex: Sam has found himself in a bit of a pickle. While tailing a suspect
in the investigation of the murder of his girlfriend, he's run afoul
of George, a burly auto mechanic who doesn't like nosy wimps harassing
his buddies. The GM has announced a Conflict - he declares that
George's Goal is to knock Sam unconscious to "teach him a lesson" and
he proposes using George's Brawling Skill combined with his Might
Attribute as the Method.
Once a Conflict has been proposed, the opposing character must determine how
he will react. The opponent must declare his own Goal and Method for the
Conflict. The Goal should not simply be "my opponent fails" - winning the
Conflict automatically means that his opponent fails. Instead, the Goal
should be a proposal about how the player wants to shift the world to his
own advantage if he wins the Conflict.
Ex: Sam is not a fighter at heart -- his skills lie more on the persuasion
side of the scale than the physical. So Sam's player proposes a Goal
of talking George down from his rage making him friendly.
As his Method, Sam's player proposes using Sam's Silver Tongued Devil
Skill combined with his Charm Attribute.
Once both sides have proposed their Conflict Goals and Methods, the GM should
review the proposed Goals and Methods to make sure that they make sense and
follow logically from each other. The GM must also decide if the characters
have the relevant Equipment necessary to use the Traits proposed by their
choice of Method. The Conflict Resolution system is open to abuse if
both sides aren't playing in good faith, so be careful.
Ex: The GM decides that George isn't going to be friendly, but he does
decide that if Sam wins the contest, George will stop coming after him
(for now) and even answer some questions (provided Sam is careful about
how he asks them). The GM decides that Sam's choice of Method would
credibly lead to this goal.
Both sides should also decide if they are spending Karma or not on this
attempt. Any character with a Karma Pool can spend a point of Karma to
improve his chances at success with a bit of luck. If both characters
spend Karma, their luck cancels out and neither gets a bonus, otherwise
the character spending Karma improves his chance of victory by one
level.
Ex: Sam's player has decided that Sam really needs to stay conscious and
unhurt, so he's dedicating a point of Karma to stopping George's
rampage. George, on the other hand, is a mook -- he isn't really a
major character in the story and so doesn't have any Karma to spend.
Sam's player marks his Karma Pool down by 1 point and the GM notes that
Sam will have the edge in the Conflict.
To resolve the Conflict, first the Trait values for each character are
compared. If one character has a higher Trait value than the other, he
wins the Conflict and achieves his Goal. If one character spent Karma
and his opponent did not then that character is treated as if his Trait
value was one level higher than usual. If the level of the two characters
Skill values are the same, the Conflict backs off to a comparison of Attributes
and the character with the higher Attribute level wins the Conflict. Again,
if one character spent a point of Karma he is treated as if his Attribute
value were one level higher for the Conflict.
If the two characters' Attributes are also tied, Karma Pools are compared and
the character with the larger Karma Pool wins the Conflict. Again, if one
character spent Karma and the other did not then his Karma Pool is treated as
one point higher than it is. Finally, if even the Karma Pools of the two
characters are tied, then the two opponents are so evenly matched that the
resolution of the Conflict comes down to luck -- a coin should be flipped to
determine who wins the Conflict.
Ex: George's Brawl Skill is Outstanding while Sam's Silver Tongued Devil Skill
is only Excellent. But Sam spent a point of Karma and so his Skill is
treated as Outstanding for this Conflict -- a tie. The Conflict backs
off to the proposed Attributes instead. George has a Might of Excellent
and Sam has a Charm of Excellent as well. But Sam spent a point of Karma,
pushing his Charm Attribute to Outstanding -- Sam wins the Conflict.
Had George had a Might of Outstanding as well, then the Conflict would
have fallen to a comparison of their Karma Pools. Since Sam has a Karma
Pool and George is just a mook, he'd win the Conflict anyway.
Once the Conflict is resolved the outcome should be narrated based on the
Goals of the two actors. The winning character achieves his Goal and the loser
doesn't, but the narration should take into account the Methods and Goals of
both characters.
If a Conflict only has one character involved (e.g. an Unopposed Conflict),
then the player should still propose both a Goal and a Method. Unlike an
Opposed Conflict, the "Goal" of an Unopposed Conflict is usually just to make
the acting character fail. Failure will have different results depending
upon the individual task -- sometimes failure at a task just means that the
character must find some other way to reach his goal. Sometimes failure is
life and death.
The "Method" for the Unopposed task is a representation of the difficulty of
the task -- basically the level of the Method for an Unopposed conflict should
be set to a level that represents how much training a character needs to
achieve the task. A task that an average person can do without any training
would have a level of Average, while a task that requires special education
might have a level of Excellent or even Outstanding.
Ex: Sam needs to get into the office of a seedy corporate executive that
he thinks is involved in his girlfriend's death. Unfortunately, the
executive has a nasty computerized lock on his door. Sam has a
Security Systems Skill of Good and proposes a Goal of opening
the door without setting off the alarm using his Security Systems Skill
and his Intuition Attribute for the Method. Unfortunately for Sam,
the GM decides that the lock is very complex, requiring an Outstanding
level of training to crack it. Even spending Karma, Sam won't be
able to open this particular lock.
Unlike Opposed actions, Unopposed actions never fall back to Attributes. In
the case of a tie, the character wins the Conflict.
Ex: Later, Sam is trying to break into a fancy hotel room with an electronic
lock where the seed executive is staying. Sam needs to get into the
room so he again proposes a Security Systems/Intuition Method with a
Goal of bypassing the electronic lock. The security on the room is
inferior to the high-priced system on the executive's office, and only
has a level of Excellent. With the Karma expenditure, Sam has a Security
Systems Skill level of Excellent -- enough to barely pop the lock and
enter the room.
Even though Unopposed Conflicts never make use of the Attribute assigned to
the Method, one should be selected anyway. The combination of Attribute and
Trait should help describe how a character is making their attempt to achieve
a particular Goal. For example, a Lockpicking/Intuition Method involves the
character attempting to pick a lock based on gut instinct, while
a character using a Lockpicking/Reason Method to pick the same lock would
be carefully analyzing the lock to find the best ways to make use of his
tools. A character could even use a Lockpicking/Finesse Method to pick the
lock based on the "feel" of the lock tumblers against his fingers. Other
combinations might make less sense - neither Lockpicking/Might nor
Lockpicking/Charm make a great deal of sense. On the other hand, a character
could use Brawl/Might to throw himself at the door to open it or
Lying/Charm on the building Super to get him to unlock the door instead.
Regaining Karma
===============
A character regains spent Karma in a few ways. When a character does something
suitably dramatic, the GM can reward him with a point of Karma. This should
be used to encourage players to have their characters perform dramatic actions.
In addition to gaining Karma when performing dramatic actions, a character can
also gain Karma when he suffers a dramatic setback. If a character loses a
Conflict that is judged suitably dramatic by the GM, he should gain a point of
Karma.
Finally, a character can gain Karma when the GM negates a reasonable action by
a player for dramatic or story reasons. These points are earned when the
action proposed isn't impossible or unreasonable, but just an action that
the player wants to undertake that the GM doesn't want to let him. The
character gets a point of Karma and the player chooses another path. Do
not use this option lightly - constantly telling the player no is a bad idea,
but using this option sparingly can keep the game in motion instead of
derailed due to a disastrous decision by a player. Instead of just telling
a player "No", this mechanic should usually be used by the GM to change a
player's suggested Goal for a Conflict.
Ex: Sam has finally tracked down the villain of the piece - a hitman named
Serge. Sam's player decides that Sam is angry and is going to go for
the kill against Serge. However, the GM wants Serge to get away in a
mysterious escape instead of getting killed. Despite Sam winning the
Conflict, the GM dictates that Serge escapes and gives Sam's player a
point of Karma in return.
The maximum Karma any character can have at any point in time is 10 points. If
a character has 10 Karma in his pool, additional Karma points are lost instead
of earned.
Spending Karma
==============
Spending Karma generally occurs in conflicts, but a player can also spend Karma
to affect a particular scene. Under normal circumstances, players can suggest
reasonable changes to a scene that a GM describes. For example, the GM might
describe a standard "big city" street scene. The player wants there to be a hot
dog vendor on the street so he can buy a hot dog. Since it's mid-day in a busy
city this is a completely reasonable suggestion and the GM takes the suggestion
and puts a hot dog vendor on the street without requiring a Karma expenditure.
Later in the same scene, the player needs to have a ladder. He suggests that
there's a repair truck on the street with a ladder attached to the side. This
isn't completely outside the realm of probability, but it isn't something you
commonly might expect to see downtown so the GM allows it if the player is
willing to pay a Karma point.
Finally towards the end of the scene the player wants to have a tank. He
suggests that an Army transport is traveling through the city and offers to
spend a Karma point. The GM is free to deny this request despite the Karma
expenditure -- Army transports coming through a downtown area aren't going
to be a frequent occurrence.
Karma may also be spent for another purpose - to save a character's life. If
a PC ends up dead at the end of a Conflict but still has points of Karma in
his pool, the PC loses a point of Karma and stays alive. The character may
be unconscious, bleeding to death, or even maimed, but still alive. The
GM should work out the circumstances of how the character survives and what
consequences he suffers despite surviving.
Ex: Sam is in a showdown with Serge, and Sam chooses his Conflict poorly.
Serge's Goal was to leave Sam dead in the street, and he won the Conflict.
Sam still has points in his Karma pool, however, so the GM rules that
the sound of the gunshot that Serge let off to kill Sam alerted
the neighborhood. Serge doesn't have time to check to see if Sam is
truly dead as he runs off into the night. Sam survives long enough
for an ambulance to arrive at the scene and get him to a hospital. As
a result of the gunshot wound, however, the GM rules that Sam now has
a distinctive wheeze in his chest that will never go away -- Sam's Might
is permanently reduced by one level and he's stuck in the hospital for
a month of recovery.
Improving Characters
====================
Different types of character Traits can be improved in different ways. In
general, Merits only improve due to story-based considerations -- a character
may find himself suddenly in possession of a large sum of money, improving his
Wealth Merit, or may find himself suddenly the owner of a magic sword, giving
him a new Equipment Merit. Merits can also degrade for story considerations:
a character's magic sword could break, or he could lose his money due to the
machinations of a villain. In general, these should not be things that a
GM inflicts on a player's character, rather they should occur as repercussions
of the character's own actions.
Skills improve through training and use. In general, the more a character
uses a Skill, the more he can improve at it. Training and use only goes so
far, however, and Skills with low Rank are easier to improve than Skills
with high rank. A character can improve from Average to Good in a Skill after
using it in five Conflicts -- whether or not they are successful -- and
spending a point of Karma. A Trait can be improved from Good to Excellent
by using it in ten Conflicts -- with at least one failed Conflict and one
successful Conflict -- and spending a point of Karma. Each Rank improvement
above Excellent doubles the number of uses required -- twenty to rise to
Outstanding and forty to Incredible -- and also double the number of
successes and failures required -- two each for Outstanding, four each for
Incredible. A Rank of Incredible generally represents the peak of human
performance, though in supernatural campaigns higher Ranks might be possible.
In such cases the doubling continues as above -- eighty uses for Spectacular,
160 uses for Amazing, etc.
In addition, Skills can be improved through training. In general, the number
of months of training required to improve a Skill correspond to the number of
uses above - 5 months to raise from Average to Good, 10 more to raise from
Good to Excellent, 20 from Excellent to Outstanding, etc. Training means
devoting oneself to at least eight hours of practice per week -- if training is
skipped for a week then the training time resets. As with training through
use above, a Karma point needs to be spent to achieve improvement. A
character can really only devote training time to one Skill at a time.
Additionally, if a character uses a Skill in a dramatic Conflict while training,
it reduces the number of weeks required for training by one.
Knowledges can be improved only through study -- you cannot improve a Knowledge
through use in a dramatic Conflict. The time required to improve a Knowledge
corresponds to the level of training it represents in a campaign. The
following chart shows how Knowledge Ranks correspond to education levels for
a 21st century "modern" campaign set in the US:
Education Ranks
============================================
Poor High School failure
Average High School / College non-major
Good Undergradute major area
Excellent Some graduate study (Master's or PhD)
Outstanding Full graduate (Master's or PhD practicing in the field)
Note that the "Improvement through use" mechanic to improve Skills is ripe for
abuse by crafty players. "Use" in this case means that the attempt that the
player makes needs to be meaningful for the story -- its the combination of the
pressure of the need to succeed along with the difficulty of the task that
motivates improvement. As such, uses motivated by Conflicts that a player
proposes just to gain another use in a Skill should not count toward
actual uses.
Ex: Joe is trying to game the system. He attempts to pick the lock on
every door that the GM mentions, hoping to improve his Lockpicking
Skill through use. The GM is free to point out to Joe that
since there's no real motivation to get these doors open on his
part other than practicing his Lockpicking skill, these attempts
fall under "training" and not "use" and so don't count toward
the 5 he needs to improve his Skill.