Karma Points

Every character starts the day with an amount of ‘Karma Points.’ The amount of points you have increases with your level. These Karma Points are representative of many unseen forces at work surrounding your character. You may use them at any time you see fit to affect the roll of a dice already rolled. When choosing to use a karma point, you add +2 to the dice result. Here are some suggestions about basic situations that karma points could be applied to.

Karmic Actions
Hitting with an Attack: You may use a Karma Point when you roll an attack to increase your attack roll against the target. Sometimes your attacks may miss by only a slim margin, in these cases Karma Points can be used to secure a hit.

Saving a Fumble: When you critically fail in Apress, you become Overextended, opening you up to possible finishers or talents and abilities that capitalize on the status. Often times this can spell disaster for a character during difficult encounters. Spending a Karma Point when you roll a “1” will turn that roll into a “3.” Your action still may fail, but you no longer suffer the fumble penalties.

An Active Defense: When fighting elite or solo creatures, their attacks may be powerful enough to reduce your health to zero in only 1 or 2 attacks! An active defense will save your life, but only if successful. Consider spending a karma point when you fail an active defense to avoid being quickly defeated by strong foes.

Activating Abilities and Talents: Many powerful abilities are usable only once per combat or once per day. Some of those abilities can be used again by spending a karma point. This allows you to use those powerful abilities more often. Some abilities activate any time you spend a karma point, you can chain these effects for powerful combinations!

Lure of Death: When you roll your 1d6 dice upon entering lure of death, a roll of a natural “1” spells almost certain doom for your character. Use a karma point on those rolls to turn your Lure of Death dice to a “3” and avoid being trapped at the bottom of lure. You could also turn a “4” into a “6” to escape lure immediately!

Gaining CP: During a short rest, you may roll a 1d10 dice to earn possible CP. A close roll in these scenarios can be tipped over using a karma point to gain much needed rest for your character. This CP could be spent in a variety of ways, so look out for this opportunity.

Forcing a Critical Hit: Aggressive characters may spend their karma points to force a critical hit upon an enemy! Some abilities activate on critical hits only, and you are sure to help your party by doing maximum damage. Forcing a critical hit also helps to pin down opponents with high defenses.

Restoring Karma Points
Some abilities or talents may grant you Temporary Karma, or additional Karma Points. These can be spent like normal Karma Points. Temporary Karma cannot be used by the GM after being spent, however, Temporary Karma disappear if not used during the combat or camping session in which they are granted, so be sure to use them!

Leveling Up
As you level, you will get increased karma points per day. Consult the progression chart to learn how much Karma your character should have.

Double Failure Karma
Whenever you fail a check (attack roll, skill check, resistance check) twice within a single turn in combat, you gain +1 temporary karma. A temporary karma earned in this way cannot be spent to activate abilities or talents.

Karmic Backlash
Using a karma point does not remove it completely from play, instead it is added to a pool that the game master can use. When a game master uses karma, it is sometimes in the form of an ability possessed by Elite and Solo monsters. Monsters with this ability are rare, and so wise adventurers would do well to learn about foes by using their skills before facing them. Temporary Karma cannot be used by the game master in this way, these are always safe to use!

Karmic Benevolence
Sometimes even the game master wants the hero to succeed. In rare cases, the GM can choose to use karma points the player has already spent to add a +2 to one of their rolls.