Post by Cosmic Orrery Games in Progress on: Maximum Recursion Depth, or Sometimes the Only Way to Win is to Stop Playing

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Very nice! I love the idea of Karma as mechanic where the higher it gets the more power but at greater risk. It can be hard to work that kind of dynamic into a game but it sounds like karma would catch it well. Might I suggest the inclusion of kind of a checklist/"if the players do this" or what have you for karma so that a GM has a nice list to quickly consult to see if players gain karma or not? :)

The Requiring a ritual too creates a nice dynamic that encourages planning ahead and preparations since there is still a fail/die state.

maxcan74 years ago

So I'm thinking that in place of Failed Careers / Starter Packages, there will be something like Poltergeist Forms, the form they would take in one of the Numberless Courts of Hell if they died, prior to reincarnating, if they for-real died, but these will include some items or abilities and a short roll table if starter karmic attachments, all of which tie into the theme of the Poltergeist form and collectively should give a GM an idea of what some Karmic Attachments might look like. Probably for this initial release I'll just do a handful. Then there will also be roll tables for Karmic Attachments that aren't as specific to a character but are more like quests or things the party can interact with. So you can still sandbox to an extent, but if you're really mucking about without resolving anything, you're going to accumulate too much karma. This whole thing is loosely inspired by my vague recollection of Tenra Bansho Zero, but in a way they're also kind of like aspects in Fate.

I'm glad you appreciate the ritual idea. That was also part of my thinking; reincarnation is a central concept of this game and setting, but I also want there to be real stakes where characters can die, besides just becoming an ashura (although that is also basically like dying). Of course, if they die but don't become an ashura, they could still potentially be found as a Poltergeist in one of the Numberless Courts and rescued, if someone in the party can afford that Karmic Attachment...

maxcan74 years ago

This conversation has been really helpful, thank you. Here's tentatively what I'm thinking for advancement:

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A character must resolve at least one Karmic Attachment and bring Karma down to 1 in order to level up and gain (some bonus). If a character would become an ashura, they can instead level down (and Karma defaults to 5).

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The idea being that you have to gain Karma in order to do stuff, and it empowers you (given the Karma Roll affecting degree of success), but then to ever actually advance, you have to resolve karmic attachments and impair yourself (less likely to fill succeed in any roll). You have to be willing to give up that material attachment. For this to work, resolving Karmic Attachments needs to divest more karma than is accrued by taking the attachment and/or I need to think of other ways Karma can be divested, but I'm ok with that.

And then, I like the idea that you can level down instead of becoming an ashura. It creates a buffer if a character gets in over their head, it's consistent with the themes of the setting, and because you'll be at a high Karma you're not significantly impaired, but it's going to take longer to bring your Karma all the way back down just to level back up to where you were before, making yourself weaker as you lower your Karma, which again feels fitting with the themes. It should be easy to gain Karma or level down, and enticing to do so, and difficult to resolve karmic attachments and divest their Karma. A player must divest their own Karmic Attachments if there is any hope for their character to do so ;).

Cosmic Orrery Games4 years ago(+1)

Resolving Karma sounds like it would be a fun way to insert Dilemmas into the story. Having to choose which attachments to sacrifice and what not. I'm glad this conversation was helpful!

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