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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Grandpa" data-source="post: 5831342" data-attributes="member: 560">I wanted to share my experience implementing karma points in my homebrew campaign in case it benefits someone else. After a few sessions of experimenting and tuning, I feel enthusiastic about my results.[SBLOCK=How they work...]<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Players get 1 karma point if they miss every target on their turn.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">At the end of each encounter, players get 1 karma point per encounter played since their last extended rest.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The DM also rewards karma at his discretion.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Players can spend 1 karma point (no action) to add +1 to a roll they make.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Players can spend 2 karma points to add +1 to another player's roll.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">For each karma point spent by the players, the DM gains a karma point to use with NPCs / monsters.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">All karma points (player + DM) are reset to 0 by an extended rest.</li> </ol>[/SBLOCK][SBLOCK=Why I added them...]The numbers below correspond with "How they work..."<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">I hate the sense of defeat and uselessness that comes from combat rounds where everything misses, and have even seen players give up on D&D due to the resulting frustration.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">I dislike the 15-minute adventuring day and thought this would add a small incentive to continue on with rules that help enable "heroics on fumes" without eliminating risk.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">I like giving the players meaningful game incentives to help out with the campaign.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Handing out "+1 points" is a meaningful game incentive.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">But giving others the ability to pool resources to help make magic happen creates a real sense of unity in the team, and gives players another reason to pay attention to combat when it isn't their turn.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Before this rule, karma points were too powerful but I didn't want to reduce their incentive for desired player behavior. When unsure how to tune game design, I try to use "risk vs. reward" so players feel like they have actions that increase both during play. Granting karma to the DM seemed like a silver bullet -- a way to offer the same mechanical incentives while adding risk, all while keeping the math roughly even; to my simple mind, at least.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">To prevent hoarding.</li> </ol>[/SBLOCK][SBLOCK=Results...]The numbers below correspond with "How they work..."<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">This has been a massive help in reducing frustration. Not only because they get a consolation prize but because karma means they miss less in general.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">I haven't seen a huge effect on avoiding extended rests yet.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">As I mentioned above, this has been a huge boon for player participation. At the end of each session, I make a list of "easy karma" targets that have the players helping with campaign tasks or adding to their backgrounds, and the players very often participate, especially when they know an important fight is coming.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">They love being able to squeeze in a roll and even I like knowing they can rely on it. For example, one player "did something cool" (action point + surge to do a narrative action that I adjudicate) to "chop off the hand" of an enemy, and I said a roll of 19-20 would succeed knowing that even he missed karma would likely be used to seal the deal. (This is exactly what happened and they loved it.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Pooling resources feels awesome. Players bond when the others turn a miss into a hit and it really brings them together. Even the DM gets warm fuzzies when this happens.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">This is an awesome addition to the rules. As a DM it gives me a legitimate way to affect the tide of the fight without feeling like I'm "fudging" and cheating the system -- I simply choose to use or not use bonuses the players hand over to me, but it always increases their tension (awesome). I can make the fight scarier by using karma or if the situation looks too dire, allow karma use to be lopsided in their favor. (I should mention that I keep monster rolls hidden so they don't know when its being applied.) I don't hate fudging; I just love having rules that make it way less necessary.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Hoarding avoided.</li> </ol>[/SBLOCK][SBLOCK=Other Considerations...]<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Players will need to know the stats of their enemies. "How much did I miss by?" is common but I don't care what the players know about enemy defenses  or HP since I try to embrace the lore-plus-stats approach described in the books -- "You are struck by how difficult it is to penetrate the orc's defenses; his AC is 26."</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">There is probably more potential to min / max karma points that my players are not using. For example, never give them to another player (bad conversion rate!), or save and only spend for the final moments of the fight or never use them since all it does is shift when +1s and damage happen. But so far there is a strong human element that kicks in when they are depressed and just want a roll to hit, or their pal is depressed for missing an important role by 3 points and everyone pools 6 karma to help him (bringing them together and encouraging this behavior). And as for saving karma to spend at the end of the fight, in 4E, that's usually when things feel like a slog anyway, and if they feel like the last enemy somehow surviving could end in severe payback, it manages to make those last moments more exciting.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I haven't tightly defined how karma works for enemies. Right now, I just stack them onto a roll I really want to hit a player with and only subtract karma if it missed by an amount the karma would help it reach. With damage rolls, I just apply as much as I want. I'm considering the ability to spend karma to recharge a monster ability at a karma cost of [min recharge die roll required-1].</li> </ul>[/SBLOCK]</blockquote>

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