BS&W: Using Your Karma Points
Good Karma
Good Karma is used between adventures to improve character ratings or gain benefits. A character can increase Physical and Mental Attributes 1 point by paying a number of Good Karma Points equal to the rating to which the Attribute is being raised. Raising a Strength of 5 to 6 would cost 6 Good Karma Points. Attribute Ratings cannot normally exceed the character’s racial maximum. However, if the gamemaster agrees, paying double the Good Karma Points can raise the Attribute above the racial maximum. For example, a human character who wanted to raise her Strength from 6 to 7 would have to spend 14 Good Karma Points to do so. The gamemaster should probably discourage players from raising a character’s Attributes to beyond 1.5 x the racial maximum. Good Karma can also raise Attributes that have been reduced for some reason. Though it is NEVER possible to use Karma to directly raise Reaction, Essence, and Magic, Reaction may change if Quickness or Intelligence is improved.
Skills
Skill Ratings can also be raised using Good Karma. Once the Karma has been paid, the Skill Rating goes up 1 point. Once the character has begun the game, improvements in general skills, Concentrations, and Specializations al happen sepa- rately. Increasing a general skill does not automatically change the Concentration, and so on.
Good Karma Cost For Skills
- General skills – 2 x New Rating
- Concentrations – 1.5 x New Rating
- Specializations – 1 x New Rating
- Languages – 1 x New Rating
Iris has specialized in Firearms Skill. Her current ratings are Firearms 1, Pistols 3, and Beretta 101T, her chosen weapon, of 5.
Raising her general Firearms Skill from 1 to 2 costs 4 Karma Points.
Raising her Pistols skill from 3 to 4 costs 6 Karma Points.
Raising her Beretta 101T skill from 5 to a Specialization 6 costs 6 Karma Points.
New Concentrations are based on the existing general skill score. If the character has Firearms 4 and wants to concentrate with Pistols at 5, the Concentration would cost 5 x 1.5, or 8 Karma Points.
New Specializations are based on the existing Concentration score. If the character does not have an appropriate Concentration, use the general skill. Thus, if the character only wants to improve with the Remington Roomsweeper, the Specialization would cost 5 x 1, or 5 Karma Points, to reach Rating 5 in that specialized skill.
New skills cost 1 point of Good Karma for the first rating point. A Hermetic magician must have unrestricted access to a sorcery library with a rating equal to, or greater than, the Sorcery Skill rating he wishes to acquire.
Karma Pool
One-tenth (round up) of all Karma earned goes into the character’s Karma Pool. The character can draw from it as needed during an encounter, but once the Karma Pool is emptied, it is no longer available for that encounter. The full value of the Karma Pool returns with the next encounter. (What constitutes an encounter? A single scene or event in the story. It might be a single location or several closely related areas. A running gun-battle might be a single encounter, or it might be a series of them. If the runners have time to catch their breath, it usually means a new scene, or encounter, has begun.)
Points from the Karma Pool can be used a number of ways.
Re-rolling Failure
A character can use 1 point from the Karma Pool to re-roll any test dice that failed. For example, the player rolls 4 dice and scores 2 successes. For 1 point of Karma, he can roll those 2 failed dice again. This process can be repeated, but each time it is done on a single test the Karma cost goes up by 1, until all the dice are successes or the character runs out of Karma.
Avoid an “Oops”
The Rule of One can be partially avoided. If all the character’s dice come up 1, it usually means a disastrous failure. Paying 1 point of Karma does not allow a re-roll, but does turn the disaster into a simple failure. Additional Karma cannot be spent on the failure.
Buy Additional Dice
A character may spend 1 point of Karma to buy an additional die for use in a test, up to a maximum of however many skill, Attribute, or rating dice are in use, not including other Pool dice. These karmic dice score, and are used, normally.
Buying Successes
It is also possible to purchase raw success at a cost of 1 Karma Point per success, but on two hefty conditions. First, the character has to generate at least 1 success normally through the test. No natural, regular successes, no karmic successes. Second, Karma Pool dice spent to buy a success are gone (pffft!) forever, expended permanently. They do not refresh with the pool in the next scene. Replacement Karma must be earned.
