Earthdawn 4E: Rules Variant 11 - Karma Ritual

This is the eleventh Rules Variant, part of an ongoing series about Earthdawn Fourth Edition. Introduction and Index.

Everything contained here is the work of a fan and not associated with FASA Games.

Compared to most rules variants detailed here, this one doesn't change much of how the system works. The two biggest features it offers are simplifying tracking Karma Points and smoothing out variability in the "working day."

By the working day, I'm referring to how much stuff a group gets up to in a given day of game time. Behavior around that day looks very different if there is only one encounter on a given day v. multiple encounters. This begins to skew how valuable some abilities are compared to others and how much Karma can be spent without real consequence.

Tracking Karma Points between sessions and remembering to perform a Karma Ritual to refill your Karma Pool can be cumbersome for some players and/or groups. There's also a strategy to when you perform your Karma Ritual to refill your Karma Pool, waiting until after the first encounter to use some downtime and effectively providing a second full pool as long as the previous day didn't require much.

This rules variant has Karma Pools refill at the beginning of each session, rather than each day when performing a Karma Ritual. Depending what the typical working day looks like, Karma may become more scarce and higher Circle adepts may have to think more carefully about when they spend that resource since it won't necessarily be all back tomorrow. This also means adepts with Karma Rituals that have a difficult requirement (e.g. being under an open sky during a kaer delve) aren't inherently penalized by that. There's also no need to track how many points remain at the end of a session—they all come back when everyone returns to the table.

Gamemasters have more control over the flow of Karma at the table and the tension due to the resource dwindling. They can even have the group breathe a sigh of relief if they're tapped out, but are given a reprieve before the final showdown in the next session. Allowing them to show up with all those resources available by calling game beforehand.

This change moves the Karma Ritual from being about Karma at all into being about connecting with the adept's Discipline and what it means to them. How they connect with it. In this case, I think of it more as a "Centering Ritual." I've been slowly introducing effects that take place during this time to emphasize that connection and the inherent magic associated with it, rather than just being about getting all that Karma back. Count on seeing more of those abilities in the future.

In all, this is a situation I prefer and found it very successful duing the last long campaign I ran. However—as with all things—it isn't necessarily for everyone. Groups accustomed to freely spending Karma because of a short working day may have a rough adjustment to make.