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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Timothy Little <t_little@**********.UTAS.EDU.AU>
Subject: Karma in-game
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 10:00:07 +1100
At 10:55 PM 10/20/97 -0400, Justin wrote:

[Re: Magic & Matrix ]

> Also, karma is stretched even further to purchase the knowledge. IMO, the
>karma and time contstraints wholly encompass the difficulty of mastering
>both magic AND the matrix.

Just out of interest, how far do other people make the game mechanics
visible in the game-world?

For instance, Karma seemed to represent a game-balance sort of thing, like
"Experience Points". As such, I thought they were totally intangible in the
game-world.

However, when you have things like Quickenings, Anchorings, and Bonding, it
seems like they reflect a "thing" in the game-world.

Can a magician know how many Karma Points he has, or whether he has any?
Does this only become apparent when he tries to Quicken a spell and it
fails? What happens when such an event *does* happen? Does he hear a
voice from the depths of Astral space say "You have no Karma", or is it an
inexplicable failure?

Can a Free Spirit determine a character's Karma status? Can they tell when
there is "nothing to give"?

Could a Detect Karma spell be created, in theory?

--
Little One
Message no. 2
From: Max Rible <slothman@*********.ORG>
Subject: Re: Karma in-game
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 16:13:02 -0800
At 10:00 10/22/97 +1100, Timothy Little wrote:
>Just out of interest, how far do other people make the game mechanics
>visible in the game-world?
>
>For instance, Karma seemed to represent a game-balance sort of thing, like
>"Experience Points". As such, I thought they were totally intangible in the
>game-world.

In my game, I award both Karma points and experience points. Experience
points function like karma points but can only be used to increase skills--
nothing else. They represent ordinary learning, and can be acquired through
study. Karma points are something you get for making a difference in the
world, for good or for ill, and *those* are the ones that have mystic
capacities. (I award one karma point for 80 hours spent in selfless acts,
such as a mage casting healing spells in the local clinic or a physical
adept teaching self-defense and self-reliance to street kids; I'd award
them in a lesser proportion to a fixer going out and spending nuyen in
making contacts and extending their network, a mage creating a new kind of
spell and extending the world of magic theory, or a decker inventing a new
kind of decking utility. Putting more than 40 hours a week into work
activities starts bringing in the rules on burning out, which includes things
like stun boxes that don't go away and temporary loss of Willpower; mages who
have spent a whole month refining orichalcum aren't fit to run the shadows
until they've had a week's vacation. No one's tried to abuse these rules
yet, but I've got a very good Troupe that way.)

>However, when you have things like Quickenings, Anchorings, and Bonding, it
>seems like they reflect a "thing" in the game-world.

>Can a magician know how many Karma Points he has, or whether he has any?
>Does this only become apparent when he tries to Quicken a spell and it
>fails? What happens when such an event *does* happen? Does he hear a
>voice from the depths of Astral space say "You have no Karma", or is it an
>inexplicable failure?

I believe that any character capable of expending karma has a "feel" for
their available karma, and that "feel" is sufficient for them to make
decisions like "do I have enough to Quicken that spell at that level of
power?" The *character* isn't thinking "do I have enough karma points
to Quicken that spell at force 6?", but the player's thought process should
match an analogous one for the character's. Similarly, when giving karma
to free spirits, I don't think they think of it as points-- it's a matter
of giving a portion of one's self to the spirit.

>Can a Free Spirit determine a character's Karma status? Can they tell when
>there is "nothing to give"?

>Could a Detect Karma spell be created, in theory?

If a Free Spirit can determine a character's Karma status, then a Detect
Karma spell should be possible. I am inclined to think that karma cannot
be detected directly, but a specialized mind-probing spell might let
someone else get the same "feel" for how much karma the target as as the
target does.

--
%% Max Rible %% slothman@*****.com %% http://www.amurgsval.org/~slothman/ %%
%% "Ham is good... Glowing *tattooed* ham is *bad*!" - the Tick %%

Further Reading

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