Lone Wolf Fists: The tug of destiny

I like gold=XP

Granted, it doesn't make a lot of sense. I think I have to revoke my "get mad at disassociated mechanics" card because of the kind of noodles I'd need to twist my brain into justifying "Gold makes you stronger": You're not eating it.

But I like it anyway. I like that it makes my players crawl into the dungeons I've lovingly stuffed with monsters, traps and generally hostile architecture. I like that it makes them take up risky treasure hunts and bounties for seasoned killers and marauding beasts.

Again, it doesn't make sense: The sustained proximity of gold never made anybody better at fighting, or taught them new magic. But despite it being about as disassociated as a mechanic can be, I forgive it because it shapes the kind of game that I want. It encourages players to do the stuff we all came to the table to see.

Gold for XP isn't the only early game design the fused "behavior you want to see" with advancing a character: Marvel FASERIP (available in its glorious entirety for free HERE) had a system that encouraged even more nuanced behavior from it's characters.

It was such a huge inspiration for the design of OUR system, that I just stole the name: Karma (we spell ours with an "h"; "Kharma")

Seems simple huh? It is simple, but it creates a breathtakingly sophisticated incentive system. Here's a great example of how just two of these points, acting in conjunction, enable basically every sub-plot that made Marvel comics worth reading since the 1960's. Two.

In brief, any example of heroism (or rejection of it) as represented in silver-age comics is bluntly, completely articulated within this tiny little chart. Note that it grants a disincentive mechanism as well; you're punished for acting "out of character" (in the sense of it being inconsistent with the characterization of somebody like, say, Spider Man. Not as in meta-game activity)

Carrot and stick, keyed to actions that incentivize players to create a Marvel superhero universe: its an amazing little piece of game design.

And unlike Gold=XP, the struggles invited by these actions represent actions which do believably challenge and test your character. There's no suspension of disbelief, because human beings learn in the way represented in those comics; we have struggles and lessons tossed at us together, and we forge meaning and skill from that (we humans are pretty fantastic too).


There's more to the DNA of our game than FASERIP, though.

Yeah, Loresheets. I'm not the only one who admired them; our intrepid Improv GM had a lot to say about them, as did the esteemed Brian Clevinger. They use a similar mechanism to FASERIP, incentivizing players to do Deeds in line with their most cherished martial virtues to gain XP.

But in addition to the actions engendered, the spending of XP to advance your character is designed to tie you more closely to the game's universe and the events unfolding within it. How? Loresheets.

The advancement options for the game are contained in these blocks of narrative/mechanical blend; it's not possible to disassociate your advancement from your buy-in to the setting and the important elements within it.

Two systems; one which shapes player incentives towards desired actions, one which invests players into the setting as they gain the power to influence it: So, of course, my thinking is; "why not both?"

....

Lore

Destiny is a real thing in this game. It has rules; tangibility, consequences for those that ignore it (or embrace it). This manifests in the rules in four ways:

1. Dharma, a philosophical principle that must be manifested by a character’s actions
2.  Kharma, the intangible, metaphysical reward for realizing a Dharma in the world
3. Zui, the metaphysical justice for cheating destiny
4. Magical Kung-Fu, a manifestation of fulfilled destiny bridging the physical and metaphysical

Lores are game elements that allow players to interact with this metaphysical underpinning of the universe.

***CALLOUT BOX: Who cares?***

Well, your players do: if they want new kung-fu Techniques, they need to spend Kharma to buy them. They need to get them from a Lore which offers them. They need a Dharma to generate Kharma, and you get Dharmas from, you guessed it, Lore.

So your players care. You’ll care too, once we show you how to to use Lores to draw your players into adventuring in the Ashes of the World ***END***

How Lores Work

Anything in the game that offers a way for players to interact with destiny has a Lore which describes how that occurs:

• If there is a philosophical stance associated with it, then it offers characters a Dharma which can influence which actions reward them with Kharma or punish them with Zui
• If there is a specific outcome that destiny seeks to reward (or punish), then it has a Prophecy attached to it, which grants Kharma or Zui when fulfilled
• If it can teach a magical martial art, then it offers mystical training which allows characters to learn it if they can pay its cost in Kharma

Lores can be about anything; organizations, areas, persons, events, etc. Faction Lores, for example, are about one of the seven major martial brotherhoods that war over the World of Ashes and Ghosts.

Lores might summarize their subject, or may contain comprehensive information about it. This information may reside instead in their Content, which we’ll discuss later.

Dharma

The universe has its own consciousness and desires: If physical reality is its body, then its soul is Dharma.

Dharma is the mystical infrastructure of destiny; as the stars and planets arise from the processes of physics, destinies arise from the processes of Dharma. But it is more than destiny; it is purpose itself. Dharma is the thing your soul thirsts for. It is meaning, in an otherwise random and cruel universe.

It’s a big deal, basically. “Destiny” is a pretty good shorthand. Just keep in mind that it’s a huge, mystical deal; like the spiritual equivalent of the law of gravity.

Types of Dharma

There are three kinds of Dharma:

1. Major or Defining Dharma, which are the philosophical core of a character’s destiny
2. Minor Dharma, which are additional codes of ethics and behaviors adopted by characters
3. Manifested Dharma, also called Prophecies, which are events and outcomes which serve the mysterious needs of fate

Let’s talk about them

Major Dharma are selected at character generation. They are always present on a character; they don’t change over time. They have the following elements:

• Description: A brief summary of the Dharma’s purpose, intent, and the goals it instills within a character.
• Positive Triggers: Actions urged by the Dharma. If the character does them, they get a reward of Kharma.
• Negative Triggers: Actions paying lip service to, defying, or otherwise shortchanging the Dharma’s intent. Although they grant Kharma, they impose an equal amount of Zui.
• Zui Consequences: A brief list of misfortunes the Dharma can bring into your life, with a cost in Zui the GM pays to manifest them.

Minor Dharma are adopted in play as characters interact with their subject, or Root. They share some traits in common with Major Dharma, but have a shallower, less permanent impact on characters.

• Root: Minor Dharma are founded in something with a lesser kharmic destiny. Organizations, powerful characters, legendary places, and magical artifacts may possess such a destiny.
• Positive Triggers: Mechanically identical to Major Dharmas, these actions somehow substantially benefit the Root.
• Negative Triggers: Also identical, these actions might harm, humiliate or subvert the Root.
• Zui Consequences: A list of punishments, withheld privileges, and other small justices that the Root metes out to those who find its displeasure.

Minor Dharma offer a list of Triggers to characters: characters may select one positive and one negative for every two degrees they’ve achieved. Triggers may be adopted any time the character meaningfully interacts with the Root of the Minor Dharma. These triggers may be discarded during the Denouement of any session.

Zui Consequences however, are added to a character’s list for as long as the Dharma’s Root lasts. Destiny doesn’t uphold its validity; it predicates justice exclusively for living destinies. Unlike their Major counterparts, these fragile Dharmas expire with their Root.

An important point: Kharma triggers might outlast the Root. It is possible to keep the ideals of the Root alive after its demise. The GM may veto this rule, and remove any that no longer make sense.

Manifested Dharma are events whose necessity is insisted upon by Dharma. This king must die, this empire must fall, this river must fork, this temple must be built. The reason for its insistence is shrouded in its impenetrably mysterious workings, but its commands are clear with those with eyes to read them. They have the following traits:

• Root: Like Minor Dharma, Manifested Dharma are rooted in a subject. A person, place, thing, or event.
• Mandate: The outcome demanded by the Dharma. Usually stated broadly, so that many outcomes could lay a reasonable claim to having fulfilled it.
• Reward: The Kharma granted by fulfilling the Mandate.

Manifested Dharmas are temporary things. They declare a kharmically necessary outcome: when it comes to pass, they resolve. Like triggers, the exact outcome demanded by the Mandate is negotiable: a player may make a claim to have achieved it, and so long as the GM ratifies their claim, it is true.

Kharma

Kharma is the richness of the soul gained from following destiny. To the characters it’s an insubstantial but true thing, like the feelings evoked from watching the sunrise. It’s measurable only in intuition, experienced rather than examined.

For players however, it’s a currency used to advance their character’s powers. Players get Kharma as a reward for following their destiny or for doing something difficult. They can spend it to acquire new Techniques.

How to get Kharma: Portraying a character’s struggle with destiny

There is an important distinction drawn in this game between roleplaying and portraying a character:

• Roleplaying a character means upholding the shared mindspace of the game and making decisions for your character. So long as you both follow the rules and describe your character’s words and actions, you are roleplaying.
• Portraying a character, however, means taking actions that depict the struggles of that character.

Portraying, the second action, is what generates Kharma.

These actions are not mutually exclusive and in fact, it is expected that a player will do both and combine them liberally. For the purposes of generating Kharma, they are distinct criteria: a character’s struggles with destiny must be portrayed by in-character action to generate Kharma.

Once every scene per Dharma Trigger, a player may generate Kharma by portraying a character’s struggle with their destiny:

1. Choose either a Positive or Negative Kharma Trigger from your Dharma.

Desert Sage’s player Marcus has chosen Royal Dragon as his defining Dharma. On witnessing some of the miserable scrubs who have sworn fealty to him being bullied by an overgrown desert warlord, he announces his intent to fight on their behalf; one of the criteria for his Dharma Trigger.

2. When the Trigger is chosen, propose an action that your character will take which fulfills the Trigger’s criteria.

Marcus proposes marching over to the big galoot and feeding him two savage mouthfulls of fist.

3. The GM judges whether the spirit of the Dharma is fulfilled by the proposed actions. They may veto, amend, or otherwise alter the proposed action to make it fit.

As a man of reason, the GM finds no fault in Marcus’s righteous justice. He amends the proposed action to include Desert Sage loudly declaring the reason for his kingly violence.

4. The player and GM come to accord on what exact action(s) are to be taken in-character to fulfill the Dharma. Once an agreement has been reached, record the Kharmic reward on your sheet, and then portray your character’s action! Triggers generally reward you with a single Kharma.

Marcus feels that pontificating on why this brute is getting his teeth fed to him is a fitting action for Sage to take. He marks his Kharma up by 1 and lays into the meaty bastard with fist and rhetoric in an example of superlative statesmanship.

Zui

Disobeying destiny’s callings or fighting against the law of Dharma is still Kharmically profitable; learning the hard way is still learning, after all. But destiny exacts a price for wayward behavior.

This price is Zui. Zui is a measure of disharmony with Dharma; it is experienced as a feeling of wrongness, guilt, imbalance, and doom.

It’s this for characters and for players! Zui is something tracked by players as they fight against Dharma or take the easy way out; when they get enough, the GM can spend it like a currency to introduce dangers, troubles, or enemies into the game!

You might think of it as “Bad Kharma”

How to get Zui

In play, Zui builds every time a character utilizes a Negative Trigger on their Dharma. The amount of Zui accrued is equal to the amount of Kharma gained.

Zui Consequences

Zui is an abstraction of the mounting consequences from a character’s wrongdoings or defiance of destiny. Rather than being a concrete causal effect (such as a character being pursued by law enforcement after committing a crime), Zui tracks the accumulation of small trespasses, soured attitudes, ruffled feathers, and bad Kharma that accrue in the wake of a character’s discord with Dharma. These unrealized consequences build until fate balances the Kharmic scales by unleashing misfortune on the character.

The GM uses Zui in the following way. During a scene, they choose one of the consequences from a character’s Zui Consequence list. They then “spend” from that character’s accrued Zui equal to the cost of the chosen consequence.

This is done transparently; the player knows that consequences are on their way.

Once the Zui are spent, the GM then introduces the consequence. Sometimes this is immediate, but other times its a delayed thing, as you’ll see in the following illuminating example:

Having racked up a considerable mound of Zui capitulating to local warlords, Marcus is growing convinced that his Kharmic debt is about to come due. The GM agrees;  perusing his bounty of consequences, he plucks five Zui from Desert Sage’s sheet and declares a challenger to his authority has emerged from the dross of a nearby society.

Marcus doesn’t know where or when this rival will strike; all he knows is that Desert Sage feels the scales of Dharma shifting against him, and it sets his teeth on edge.

Note that the GM may spend as much or little Zui as they desire. Players take careful note; the GM may spend your Zui at times when it would be disastrous for you. Acquire them frugally and stay on your guard!

How to spend Kharma to acquire Techniques

You’ve got yourself a hefty bounty of hard-won Kharma eh? Great! Now, let’s teach you how to transform all that potential into kung-fu might!

Mystical martial arts take aeons to emerge as successive generations of kung-fu geniuses devote their entire lives to training and focusing their destiny into a distilled expression of cosmic destiny… But who has that kind of time on their hands?! Practically nobody in the graveyard of the world. If you want to learn kung-fu Techniques or Gupt Kala in any kind of reasonable timeframe, you’re going to need either a Master or a Manual.

A Master is just that: somebody who has mastered the Technique and is willing to teach you. Getting someone to part with their mystical fighting secrets can be more challenging than finding such a rare person in the first place. Thankfully, characters belonging to a clan have a network of potential Masters they can rely on with relatively mundane favor wrangling. To diversify or grow to the higher tiers of power, however, they’ll have to venture further afield.

A Manual is a written (or otherwise recorded) record that teaches students how to use a technique. Such things are treasured by their possessors, for two primary reasons: First, because of their secrets, but Second, because they can be used to train powerful Techniques while Masters perform some other vital service (such as fighting on behalf of the clan!).

Once in possession of either Master or Manual, you must then spend an entire Montage scene training. The exact manifestation of this training depends on the Technique being learned, as described under its entry.

At the culmination of this scene, you spend Kharma to truly master the maneuver. The amount of Kharma depends on the power and complexity of the Technique, according to the following list:

Cost of Mastery

• Novice: 15 Kharma
• Expert: 30 Kharma
• Master: 60 Kharma
• Ultimate: 120 Kharma

Once the Technique is paid for, add it to your character’s kung-fu repertoire. Mastering enough Techniques of the right power can increase your Degree, according to the following chart:

Advancement

• Degree 1: Starting character: 3 Novice-level Techniques, 1 Expert
• Degree 2: 2 Expert-level Techniques
• Degree 3: 1 Master or 4 Novice and 2 Expert
• Degree 4: 2 Master or 3 Expert and 1 Master
• Degree 5: 1 Ultimate Technique or 3 Expert and 2 Master
• Degree 6: 1 Ultimate and 3 Expert and 2 Master and 4 Novice
• Degree 7: 3 Master and 4 Expert
• Degree 8: 2 Ultimate or 4 Master and 6 Expert
• Degree 9: 3 Ultimate

Once you master the listed number and type of Techniques, you Degree increases at once as you realize an ever greater slice of your destiny.

Prophecies

Who can know the twisting desires of Dharma? Well, it does a pretty good job of dropping hints, at least: some things are fated to come to pass. Dharma rewards those who bring its wishes to fruition.

A Prophecy can be placed by the GM on anything (typically a proper-noun thing; "The Leader of Iron Snake Sect" or "The Vicious Wounding Pike" or "Green Sand Desert"). It is a single-sentence command of something that must happen (any verb thing, in the form of "This (noun) must (verb)": "Devil-cursed mountain must be cleansed of evil spirits" or "The Leader of Iron Snake Sect must be killed in martial conquest")

When a character causes the stated outcome to come to pass, Dharma rewards them by investing their souls with Kharma. The difficulty of bringing a Prophecy to pass determines how much Kharma is won by the hero who manifests it:

Easy: 3 Kharma

Examples: Vanquishing a foe weaker than Degree 1, accomplishing a task within the realm of an unskilled mortal, enduring a nonlethal danger

Challenging: 7 Kharma

Examples: Overcoming a foe of Degree 1-3, accomplishing a task within the realm of a skilled and capable mortal, enduring a danger which risks life and limb

Heroic: 14 Kharma

Examples: Defeating a mighty foe of Degree 4-7, accomplishing a task beyond mortal capability, enduring a danger that could snuff out a minor god or powerful spirit

Terrible: 21 Kharma

Examples: Beating a nightmarish foe of Degree 8+, accomplishing a task beyond the power of spirits and small gods, enduring a danger that endangers nations or gods

These rewards are guidelines; individual Prophecies may vary in Kharmic payout.

Claiming the reward

It’s generally pretty clear when a character fulfills a Prophecy: when the prophesied foe is bleeding at your feet, you’ve clearly vanquished them and you can claim destiny’s reward.

But what if you befriend the Scorpion-Man of Death-Bloom River instead of killing him, warming his icy heart with the heat of your fiery friendship? Is that “defeating” him, or is the threat of him returning to wickedness when you die enough for dharma to withhold its payment?

When you want to make a slantways claim to fulfilling a vaguely-worded destiny, you’re free to make your case to the GM; they either ratify it or reject it, giving their reasoning in either case. Dharma is weird, inconsistent and flighty at the best of times: in this case, the fickle whims of the GM are a great representation of this elusive (and frustrating) cosmic force.

GMs, it is good form to clarify an action that unambiguously allows the player to claim the reward, if they ask. It’s not required by any means (unless they’re able to achieve some impressive acts of spiritual insight, of course). It is a mysterious force, after all.