Karma Meter: Difference between revisions

[[File:KarmaMeter_2075KarmaMeter 2075.jpg|link=Fallout (Video Game)|rightframe|Stairway to Heaven, or Highway to Hell? It's your choice.]]

{{quote|''"It seems as though the floodgates are beginning to creak open on ''[[In FamousinFAMOUS (Video Gameseries)|In FamousinFAMOUS]]'', including the revelation of ;'Karma Moments;' - a tracked morality system with effects on player progression. It wasn't meant to be funny, but for some reason we found it very funny, because like many mechanisms of this kind your choices tend to come down to being an omnibenevolent supercherub or the Goddamned devil."''|'''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Tycho Brahe]]''', on ''[[In FamousinFAMOUS (Video Gameseries)|In FamousinFAMOUS]]''.}}

To undermine the concept even further, games with a Karma Meter often include a [[GoldenLast SnitchSecond Karma Choice]], decision thatwhich will heavily push you towards (or even lock you ''permanently'' in) one extreme of the morality gauge ''regardless'' of your actions up to that point. This means that in a game with [[Multiple Endings]], your ending is decided more by that one single choice rather than an accumulation of all of your deeds and misdeeds.

Compare [[Relationship Values]] and [[Alliance Meter]]. See also [[Character Alignment]], [[Sanity Meter]], [[Last Second Karma Choice]] and [[Hundred Percent100% Heroism Rating]].

== [[ActionVideo Adventure]]Game Examples ==

* Negative karma in ''[[The Adventures of Robin Hood (Videovideo Gamegame)|The Adventures of Robin Hood]]'' gives you the bad ending as villagers beat you to death.

=== [[Action Game]] ===

* The ''[[DantesDante's Inferno (Videovideo Gamegame)|Dantes Inferno]]'' game (loosely based on Dante's ''[[The Divine Comedy (Literature)|The Divine Comedy]]'') has a gameplay mechanic that lets you absolve or condemn most demons you fight or lost souls you come across; Absolving grants you Holy XP, which powers up your Cross, while Punishing earns you Unholy XP, which gives you more Scythe moves to buy. Neither choice has any effect on the story.

=== [[Adventure Game]] ===

** Notable in that there's really no evil ending. Honor for the paladin was simply a matter of, well, [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|honor]]. Killing an unarmed opponent was a hell of a lot easier, and faster (at a point in the game where you're running out of time ''very'' quickly), than letting him pick up his sword to continue the battle, but it sure wasn't honorable. Also notable in that the Paladin wasn't more ''powerful'' than the Fighter, just different, and usually with an assortment of quests or choices that weren't available to anyone else. Screwing up or refusing these quests degraded the Paladin to a ''weaker'' version of the Fighter.

*** Of course, in every game except the first, losing meant [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]], so it's not like siding with the villains is really an option.

* The adventure game adaptation of ''[[I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream]]'' has the "Spiritual Barometer". Keeping it high by performing good deeds (or at least not performing many bad ones) allows you to end each character's scenario on a relatively high note by dealing with their personal demons, dying with dignity, and frustrating the efforts of [[Master Computer]] AM at torturing them.

* The PC game ''[[Secrets of Da Vinci the Forbidden Manuscript|Secrets of da Vinci: The Forbidden Manuscript]]'' assigns not-entirely-heroic protagonist Valdo a good and evil meter. The white angelic meter monitors how good you are; the red devilish meter monitors how bad you are. Actions and dialogue choices throughout the game will affect one or the other, but you can also spend experience points on raising the bar of your choice. Although this has little impact on the ultimate outcome of the game, certain courses of action will not be available to you if one of the meters is too high; for example, being too good will render you incapable of knocking out a character and stealing his uniform to wear as a disguise.

* ''[[The Whitewhite Chamberchamber]]'', an indie adventure game, has an interesting karma meter that isn't actually explicitly noted as such. In the lab, there is a blackboard, with chalk lines on it. The number of lines depend on your character answering three particular questions in certain ways, and your character's actions regarding three other things. A blank blackboard gets you the worst ending, one or two gets you the slightly less bad ending, three or more gets you the "good" ending... Getting the max of six? {{spoiler|You get a damn hilarious bonus ending where everyone lives.}} Sorta...{{spoiler|[[Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies|Rock Falls, Everybody Dies.]]}}

* The ancient (CGA-graphics ancient) [[Interactive Fiction]] game ''I, Damiano'' has a meter always present at the top of the text field labeled "good" and "evil" at opposite ends. This also functions as your [[Hit Points]] bar and is affected by things that would reduce that; taking too long or being injured by wild dogs pushes you towards evil, and if you become too evil, Satan claims your soul. [[The Many Deaths of You|This is probably the least common way to die,]] and it's definitely better to ding your [[Karma Meter]] if the alternative is death.

=== [[Beat'Em Up]] ===

=== [[Driving Game]] ===

* In a rare sports game example, ''NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup'' has a career mode with a [[Karma Meter]] ranging from Hero to Villain. Where you land on the scale depends on your actions during races- for instance, deliberately crashing other drivers will move you to the Villain end. This has the effect of royally pissing them off and making them want to take you out when they get the chance. However, if you can win enough races, the fans won't care whether you're a Hero or a Villain.

=== [[Fighting Game]] ===

=== [[First-Person Shooter]] ===

** ''Jedi Academy'', meanwhile, ''seems'' to have a karma meter, based on what Force powers you pick -- afterpick—after each "upgrade" between chapters, Luke Skywalker muses on your future -- butfuture—but even if you go all [[Dark Side]], it comes down to a single choice -- {{spoiler|whether or not you decide to kill [[The Scrappy]]}}.

* In ''[[BioBioShock Shock(series)]]'', if you manage to take down a Big Daddy that's guarding a Little Sister, you can chose to either kill the Little Sister, or "rescue" her by removing the symbiont that allows her to harvest ADAM. The first option earns you twice as much ADAM from each Little Sister, but the second option nets you occasional gifts from a benefactor who wants you to save them, in the form of ADAM and special plasmids. Whether you save or harvest Little Sisters also determines which of the [[Multiple Endings]] you get. This meter is terribly unforgiving: harvest just two of 21 Little Sisters and you earn the game's opprobrium.

*** The aforementioned gifts actually render the karma meter meaningless, because it actually makes the choice mathematical rather than ethical -- killingethical—killing the Little Sisters gets you more ADAM ''now'', but freeing them gives better rewards in the long run, in the form of more ADAM, plus plasmids and tonics you either no longer have to buy, or couldn't buy to begin with.

** In the sequel, ''Bioshock 2'', your Karma Meter gets a bit of an upgrade. Your ending/alignment is determined by your decisions with the Little Sisters (whether you saved them all, killed them all, or mixed) and with several key [[NPC|NPCs]]s. Rescued Little Sisters will provide gifts similar to the first game, while only one of the other [[NPC|NPCs]]s will give you a (comparatively minor) reward for sparing her. {{spoiler|Your karma ends up affecting not only the player character, but Eleanor as well.}}

=== [[Four X4X]] ===

* ''Galactic Civilizations II'' features a unique example of a Karma Meter in a [[Four X4X|4X Game]], with a 100-point scale measuring alignment (0 is Evil, 50 is Neutral, 99 is Good). Each race starts out with a default value (although this can be adjusted by the player in the [[Expansion Pack]]), and throughout the game the player's choices in random events will allow him to "tweak" it towards his alignment of choice. Eventually you're able to choose your ultimate alignment permanently from among the three options, with each one receiving its own unique bonuses as well as boosted relations with other races of that alignment. You can choose your alignment no matter what actions you've taken. However, choosing an alignment contrary to your actions costs more.

** Somewhat oddly the random events stop happening once you choose your alignment. All in all it seems as if it were some kind of [[Humanity Onon Trial]] event you can end by either admitting to your apparent alignment or bribing the [[Powers That Be]] to change it.

=== [[Genre Busting]] ===

* The Reputation meter in ''[[Pathologic]]'' is an interesting and realistic variation on this. It's actually, for all intents and purposes, another health meter, and one of the most important ones at that. If you squander your Reputation, an already [[Nintendo Hard]] game will become ''even more difficult'', as important [[NPC|NPCs]]s will refuse to help you or provide shelter, most likely resulting in your unavoidable death.

=== [[Hack and Slash]] ===

* ''[[City of Heroes (Video Game)|City of Heroes]]'' has Fame Points as part of it'sits ''Going Rogue'' system. Characters receive fame for completing tip missions, and each point of fame pushes them toward one of the four alignments ([[The Cape (trope)|Hero]], [[Anti-Hero|Vigilante]], [[Complete Monster|Villain]], or [[Anti-Villain|Rogue]]). Upon accumulating 10 points of fame toward an alignment, one can complete a morality mission to finalize the change. Interestingly enough, contacts have no effect on alignment. A Vigilante can team with a villain and run [[For the Evulz|Westin Phipps's]] story arc without a blip on his alignment meter, despite the fact that he's [[Moral Event Horizon|poisoning children]] and murdering school teachers.

* [[Star WarstheWars: The Old Republic]], much like [[Knights of the Old Republic|its predecessors]], will allow players to play light, dark, or grey, with each karmic allignment allowing the players to equip certain kinds of gear, as well as showing that the Republic and Sith in this world have [[Grey and Grey Morality]] at best.

*** It's also worth bearing in mind that the light/dark system in this game doesn't always reflect current real-life ideas of morality, especially as far as the Jedi are concerned. Help two padawans who have fallen in love hide it from their elders? Dark side points, Jedi aren't allowed to fall in love. And then we have the choices where the concept of there being a moral dilemma that fits neatly into light or dark doesn't even make sense, like the mission where you have to decide whether to give medicine to dying soldiers or sick civilians.

=== [[Platform Game]] ===

* The kill counter in ''[[Iji (Video Game)|Iji]]'' has some elements of this, given that it affects some events in the game. Also, unlike the other counters, there is no unlockable reward associated with it.

=== [[Puzzle Game]] ===

* The online escape-the-room game ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20121117091405/http://diversity.me03.se/ Diversity]'' gives you a number of different ways to complete certain actions. While the actions yield the same result, the selected one will cause a shown Karma Meter to slide towards the white (good) or black (bad) end. Not only does the meter determine the final puzzle and [[Multiple Endings|ending]] you get, it also increasingly affects the look of the rooms you encounter: if you perform enough good actions, the rooms remain bright and clean, but if you become bad enough, the rooms become progressively darker with furniture tipped over and plants dead.

=== [[Real Time Strategy]] ===

** Unfortunately, [[Dumb Is Good]] is in effect here. "Chivalrous" tactics seem to consist of sending your army head-first against the enemy, but if you decide to skirmish, out-flank, or God forbid attack your enemy from the rear, your generals will quickly pick up "Cruel and Cunning" or similar traits. And for some reason using Spies to keep tabs on your enemy's movements is also evil. Even more annoying is how your diplomatic reputation works on the world map -- youmap—you can go the entire game without starting a single war, but if you fight back against your enemy or take their cities in retaliation, you'll quickly be saddled with a reputation as an untrustworthy monster.

=== [[Roguelike]] ===

* ''[[ADOM]]'' has a Karma Meter that is only partially visible -- yourvisible—your alignment can change and the game display will reflect this, but unless you have the (otherwise useless) Law skill at a fairly high level, the game won't tell you whether a certain act was considered lawful/chaotic ... and that skill only informs you ''after'' you've committed the act. Shuffling around within an alignment (for example, NL to N+ to N= to N- to NC are all considered Neutral) isn't much of a problem, but woe betide the player who accidentally changes alignment (such as from NC to CN -- youCN—you're now considered Chaotic) late in the game... because the nicer you've been to one god, the more the other two will hate you. There is also an artifact which is only granted to players that reach the bottom of the Caverns of Chaos without ever committing one chaotic act OR letting one lawful creature die. Since there is no indicator for this, the artifact is nearly impossible to get.

=== [[Role -Playing Game]] ===

** Becoming an avatar was extremely hard for some virtues, as fleeing even one battle was considered a cowardly act (hurts courage meter) and looting killed monsters was considered bad as well!

* ''[[Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu]]'' is another early example of the Karma Meter, and it was also the first known game to refer to it as "Karma", possibly making it the [[Trope Namer]]. Each enemy killed is either good or bad, and if the player kills too many good enemies, the Karma statistic will rise, at which point the temples will refuse to level up the player.

* ''[[Hydlide]] [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydlide_II:_Shine_of_DarknessHydlide II: Shine of Darkness|II]]'' is yet another early example of the Karma Meter, released in the same year as ''Ultima IV'' and ''Xanadu'' ([[No Export for You|in Japan only]]). In ''Hydlide'', the player can be [[Character Alignment|Aligned]] with Justice, Normal, or Evil. Killing humans or good monsters can lower the player's morality, while fighting only evil monsters can help them increase it. If the player has an Evil alignment, the townsfolk will ignore the player, denying access to certain clues, dialogues, equipment, and training.

** Of course, your Karma Meter determines how well you can use various Force powers -- ifpowers—if you build your character around using Light Side abilities and then suddenly turn to the Dark at the end of the game, you'll probably find yourself with a rather less powerful Sith Lord than if you'd been evil from the get-go.

** ''KOTOR II'' also features a mild [[Deconstructed Trope|deconstruction]]: If Kreia is with you on a certain level, a beggar approaches you, and asks for a few credits. You may choose to give him a small amount of cash, or threaten him .<ref>It's implied that Kreia's influence is preventing you from just blowing the beggar off</ref>. A brief dialogue with Kreia about unintended consequences follows; if the player chose to give the beggar money, the player sees the price of his benevolence (the beggar is now a target for a mugging). You still get light side points for giving the beggar. A similar scene, in reverse, plays out if you threaten the beggar; he's frustrated by the way you treated him, and when another beggar talks to him he snaps and attacks the guy.

* The ''[[MegamanMega Man Legends]]'' games have Mega Man turning light or dark through certain actions. Kicking pigs and donating to the church were the biggest ones. It doesn't affect the plot, except for some dialogue and weapon opportunities. This was later elaborated on in the ''[[MegamanMega Man Battle Network]]'' games, where "evil" Battle Chips darkened MegaMan's soul and lowered his HP.

** The sequel, ''[[Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume]]'', is entirely based around a much more straightforward karma meter based on how many of your teammates you're willing to sacrifice for power. Sacrificing even a single one after the tutorial, though, makes it impossible to get the best ending.

* ''[[Skies of Arcadia (Video Game)|Skies of Arcadia]]'' has the "Swashbuckler Rating", which measures not just your karma in the traditional sense but also your adventurousness and leadership skills. The rating was underused in the game itself, as it only affected one or two sidequests.

* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] 4: [[Oblivion]]'' features both a fame rating and a notoriety rating for the player. The former is increased by doing deeds that make you popular, and [[NPC|NPCs]]s tend to like you better the higher it is. The latter is increased with doing crimes and getting caught, and by completing theft and assassination quests. Though it makes no sense, [[NPC|NPCs]]s will dislike you for doing these quests even if you were never caught or even seen, because they somehow know that you are a criminal even if you have never been arrested or even implicated in anything.

* ''[[Fallout 1 (Video Game)|Fallout 1]]'' only offers a general karma meter. ''[[Fallout 2 (Video Game)|Fallout 2]]'' has the karma meter, plus an [[Alliance Meter]]. They also feature a series of status elements such as "grave robber", "child killer" and "slaver", depending on the choices made. Certain characters will react differently to different combinations of these -- forthese—for example, some stores will only sell to people with negative karma, [[Even Evil Has Standards|but still balk at selling to a child murderer]]. The only truly bad effect of negative karma turns up in ''[[Fallout 2 (Video Game)|Fallout 2]]'', in which towns will pay for bounty hunters to attack the player -- butplayer—but killing bounty hunters results in a further drop in karma, creating an unstoppable downward spiral...

** Limiting the [[Karma Meter]] at both ends may not have been the smartest decision, especially since you can go from evil to good for the bargain donation price of just 2000 caps, or giving away many purified waters to the guys outside Megaton and Rivet City. Going the opposite direction is also easy, since you can slaughter entire towns, or steal every little thing you come across.

** [[Fallout: New Vegas]] retains the karma meter from 3, and it adds a faction system similar to 2. The karma meter, however, really doesn't do much; one companion will leave you if it gets too low, and it influences the ending, but that's it.

* ''[[BaldursBaldur's Gate]]'' has reputation. A higher reputation results in some stores offering discounts, while a sufficiently low reputation might result in the random appearance of guards to hunt you down. Reputation also determines which [[Sidekick|sidekickssidekick]]s would stay on your team and which powers you develop (healing or damage-based). If your reputation drops below 10, you also become Fallen if you're a Paladin or Ranger.

* ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'' has a two-dimensional meter based on the [[Dungeons and& Dragons]] [[Character Alignment|alignment]] concept (the familiar Good-Evil scale and the Lawful-Chaotic scale). The hero begins as a True Neutral and adjusts depending on your actions. The most notable feature in Torment was perhaps that dialog options had such diverse elements as "Truth: Tell me, or I'll kill you!" and "Bluff: Tell me, or I'll kill you!" which would affect alignment differently, but NPCs similarly. The next-most notable feature was how [[Complete Monster|evil]] you could actually be.

* ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' 1 and 2 had a [[Order Versus Chaos]] [[Karma Meter]] that affected how the story unfolded and which demons you could recruit. Later games in the metaseries tend to either only keep the latter aspect or a variation thereof, or drop the Karma Meter entirely.

** ''[[Strange Journey]]'' returns to the classic [[Order Versus Chaos]] [[Karma Meter]], though it only affects how easy it is to recruit certain demons (it is no longer impossible to recruit demons of the opposite alignment, just harder) and the Demon Co-Op feature. If you're heavily tilted towards Law or Chaos then you're locked into that ending; otherwise, you get some questions at the end of the game to determine your ending (which basically boil down to, "Hey, you want this ending or what?").

* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' included a clever [[Reconstructed Trope|reconstruction]] on the karma meter with the Paragon/Renegade system. Rather than [[Black and White Morality|good and evil]], the meter represents [[Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism|idealism and cynicism]]. As [[Zero Punctuation|Yahztee]] put it, Paragon represents [[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation|Captain Picard]] and Renegade represents [[Dirty Harry (Film)|Dirty Harry]]. Certain actions and dialogue choices can gain you Paragon points or Renegade points. Depending on where you are, you're given points in either the Charm or Intimidate skills, and your choice towards the end of the game affects what ending you receive.

** ''[[Mass Effect]]'' is unique (so far) among the Bioware games for having a Karma Meter where the meter's opposites do not exclude each other: you can be ''both'' Paragon and Renegade to a separate extent. Individual choices will still either advance your Paragon or Renegade status alone, though.<ref>Except for one of the last choices in the game, where the middle choice advances both. May have something to do with it being the exact same action as the Renegade option, but without the pro-human slant to the motivation.</ref>. Although "playing both sides" leaves your character weaker overall in the Charm and Intimidate departments than if you'd specialized, the choice is there, unlike the games which effectively penalize you for not picking one side all the way.

*** This means you can play your Shepard to all kinds of moral models. You can be [[Fantastic Racism|a moral xenophobe who is nice to humans but a complete dick to aliens]], a [[Byronic Hero|"Para]][[Good Is Not Nice|gade"]] who mostly picks Paragon options along with some lighter Renegade options when angered, and it's opposing sister [[Jerk Withwith a Heart of Gold|"Ren]][[Noble Demon|egon"]], where you pick mostly Renegade options with some lighter [[Pet the Dog|Paragon options]] [[Even Evil Has Standards|when the situation calls for it]], or you could be [[Chaotic Stupid|entirely]] [[Blue and Orange Morality|random]] in your actions.

** The point of the [[Mass Effect]] system is to provide what is felt to be a more "realistic" approach to the [[Karma Meter]] - people won't forget about those Batarian [[PO Ws]]POWs you executed just because you help someone find their missing brother.

* The original ''[[Avernum]]'' trilogy has "reputation". Performing quests and other good deeds would raise it. Stealing or killing friendly people would lower it. Having a good reputation results in some [[NPC|NPCs]]s being more helpful. There's no benefit to having a low reputation. But then, you start the game with a fairly low reputation and are almost certainly going to end the game with a high one.

* ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'' has a two-way Karma Meter to fit with the [[Dungeons and& Dragons]] [[Character Alignment]] system. However, the main campaign focuses exclusively on good vs. evil choices; acting purely lawful won't do a thing to [[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil|Always Nonlawful]] bards and barbarians, whereas behaving like a full-bore rebel won't make a [[Always Lawful Good|paladin]] lose their abilities.

* There's a slight Karma Meter in ''[[Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World]]''. Throughout the game there's a few choices, choosing wrong nets you points on the meter. 9 points and you can't get the "[[Happy Ending|Good Ending]]". Of course, there's other ways to get points added... like getting hit with lightning in the temple of lightning. You'll know if you can't get the good ending if [[Rogue Protagonist|Lloyd]] gets a core besides Lumen. You can always get the "[[Bad End]]" though.

* ''[[Demons Souls|Demon's Souls]]'' doesn't just have a Karma Meter for your character, but for each region of the game world. Pushing either in one of the directions will alter character stats under certain circumstances and trigger events. In addition, altering an area's Karma Meter has an influence on enemies -- pushingenemies—pushing it towards the good end will weaken them, while pushing it towards evil will strengthen enemies and cause new types of enemies to appear... but will also increase the amount of Souls enemies give you, which act as both the game's currency and [[Experience Points]].

* ''[[Dragon Age]]'' is one [[Bio WareBioWare]] game that notably ''doesn't'' apply a [[Karma Meter]]--itMeter—it applies a veritable sex-o-meter. Doing bad things causes the [[Level Up At Intimacy 5|approval ratings]] of bad characters to rise, contributing to stat bonuses, and, for romancable characters, the increased liklihood of sleeping with them, and vice versa. That's your motivation for this game.

* ''Space Siege'' sets this up as something of an [[Emotions vs. Stoicism]] meter, with emotions as "good" and stoicism as "bad." You start at full emotion, and drop downwards as you get more [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul|cybernetic augmentations]].

* ''[[Romancing Sa GaSaGa]]'' uses [[Karma Meter]] to determine one of the three area before the final dungeon you can access. Being good locks you with the Trial of Elore. Being evil lets you get to hell. And being neutral sends you to a gaint village.

** ''[[Romancing Sa gaSaGa 3]]'' also had a Karma Meter, but this one was blatantly unfinished -- itunfinished—it only affected the availability of a single side quest and had no other purpose in the entire game.

* In [[Deus Ex Human Revolution (Video Game)|Deus Ex: Human Revolution]], an invisible, completely secret karma meter will flavor Jensen's ending monologue along good, neutral, or evil lines. No one is sure yet about how it works, except that it might be connected with the player's body count. For example, if you did a [[Pacifist Run]], he'll say something about how he resisted the urge to abuse his power.

=== [[Simulation Game]] ===

* ''[[Ace Combat|Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War]]'' has a literal Karma Meter in the form of a sliding gauge (called your Ace style) depicting you as one of three types of aces: Knight, who faces combat honorably and protects the innocent; Soldier, who can adjust his flying and combat strategy according to the tides of battle; Mercenary, an ace who flies solely for money. In game terms, this means the Knight will never attack yellow (neutral or fleeing) targets, while the Mercenary will '''always''' attack them, with the soldier striking a balance in between. Your wingmen and enemy pilots will have various things to say about you depending on your position on the gauge, certain missions have different ace enemies based on your Ace style, and it's even given a nod in the [[New Game Plus+]] by your first wingman commenting on your Ace style at the start of the first mission.

=== [[Stealth Based Game]] ===

* ''[[Manhunt]] 2'' focuses not on whether you kill, but on how sadistic you are in your killing. Being professional in your slaughter leads to {{spoiler|a [[Battle in Thethe Center of Thethe Mind]]}}, while killing in more sadistic ways results in {{spoiler|a [[Split Personality Takeover]].}}

=== [[Survival Horror]] ===

=== [[Third-Person Shooter]] ===

* The [[Third-Person Shooter]] ''[[The Suffering]]'' has a Karma Meter which depends on whether the main character, Torque, helps the less hostile [[NPC|NPCs]]s he encouters or guns them down in cold blood. This rating determines which of three endings (Good, Neutral, or Evil) you get. While the meter isn't shown explicitly, the player can to some extent gauge their karmic state by the reactions that the ghost of his wife and children have to his actions. Not only that, but the player can see what their karma is at any time in two ways: looking at Torque, and looking at a photo of his family. If the player is good, Torque is nice and clean (save for the blood he got on him from previous fights) and looks fine, while the photo is fine. If the player is neutral, they are a bit dirty and have a couple scratches on them, and the photo is somewhat damaged. If the player is evil, torque is covered in scars and sores, and the photo of his family is burned or something. Torque will also change appearance based on your actions. A third way to tell is to listen to the Infernas the several times you meet them before they start showing up as enemies. If you're on the good route, they'll be relatively friendly and compassionate. If you're on the evil route, they'll be insulting and mocking, pretending to be afraid of you. The sequel, ''The Suffering: Ties That Bind'' has a similar system, though this time actually visible in the pause menu and having concrete bonuses, and even includes an [[Old Save Bonus]] that changes the opening depending on which ending you got in the first game.

* ''[[Reservoir Dogs (Videovideo Gamegame)|Reservoir Dogs]]'' has a meter that determines whether you're merely an amoral, businesslike Professional like the movie's Mr. Pink, a Career Criminal like Mr. White, or a psychopath like Mr. Blonde. This is affected by whether you shoot people at random or try to take hostages and escape peacefully. While all the other characters' fates are sealed, the karma meter determines what happens to Mr Pink - {{spoiler|psychopaths get shot by the cops, career criminals get arrested, but professionals [[Know When to Fold 'Em]] and escape scot-free!}}

=== [[Turn -Based Strategy]] ===

* [[Nippon Ichi]] games (''[[La Pucelle]] Tactics'', ''[[Disgaea]]'', ''[[Phantom Brave]]'' and ''[[Makai Kingdom]]'') have invisible [[Karma Meter|Karma Meters]] that are affected by killing off your own teammates, an action that can easily be accidentally done, and a source of "easy" experience. This affects the ending in some of the games. The latest game allows you to follow a different path of the story after beating the game to be a bad guy. (Oddly, only demons are actually punished by the plot for doing this; humans get power-ups.)

* The turn-based strategy game ''[[Shattered Union]]'' features a "political rating" that fluctuates based on how much collateral damage you cause while conquering territories. Both the good and evil ends of the meter offer various special abilities. Being the good guy earns you the ability to spawn commandos and cyborg soldiers, heal and repair units, and temporarily make units faster and tougher. Having a [[Zero Percent0% Approval Rating]], meanwhile, gives you access to things like artillery strikes, biological weapons, and nukes. Your political rating also affects the ending you get. If you're good, America is peacefully reunited, and everybody lives happily ever after. If you were evil, you become the new fascist dictator.

=== [[Wide Open Sandbox]] ===

* ''[[True Crime: Streets of LA]]'' has a karma meter that plays on the concept of [[Good Cop, Bad Cop]]. Simply arresting random criminals (you may incapacitate them to make it easier) will raise it towards the "Good Cop" side, while shooting them dead leans you towards "Bad Cop".

** Somewhat annoyingly, in order for you to advance beyond a certain point, you needed to be at "Good Cop", which meant there was no separate path or ending for playing as a Bad Cop. Not to mention that if you got carried away, it would be almost impossible for you to return to good cop without grinding for arrests in order to score some Good Cop points.

* In ''[[Scarface the World Is Yours (Video Game)|Scarface the World Is Yours]]'', the "Cop Heat" and "Gang Heat" meters gauge Tony Montana's congeniality with the police and enemy gangs. Filling either one (or both!) too much brings about various negative effects. Some of those, however, can be mitigated with upgrades or careful play.

** In creature stage, the choices are social (green), adaptable (blue), or predator (red).

=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===

=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===

* In ''[[Trinites (Tabletop Game)|Trinites]]'' : The [[Mana]] of the game is called Karma. It basically corresponds to either of your Archont (dark Karma) or Deva (light Karma), strength. Having a higher dark Karma doesn't make you necessarily evil, as the opposite doesn't make you necessarily good, but blatantly evil acts might raise your dark Karma dots, as the archont within the player rejoices. Played more straight for Incarnate Devas and Archonts, who only have light or dark Karma, respectively.

* The pen-and-paper ''Star Wars RPG'' uses Dark Side Points - as soon as they equal your Force-sensitive character's Wisdom score, you go [[Drunk Onon the Dark Side|completely off the rails]]. For a non-Force-sensitive character, your DSP score is just a measuring tool for how big a [[Jerkass]] you are.

* The first version of the [[Tabletop Games]] ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade (Tabletop Game)|Vampire: The Masquerade]]'' gave each vampire a Humanity score, rating how much he still acts and thinks like a normal human being; inhumane acts decrease the Humanity meter, and if a Vampire runs out of Humanity, he becomes little more than a feral beast. The video game adaptation, ''Vampire: The Masquerade -- Redemption'' uses the Humanity score more as a standard Karma meter: your score at the end determines whether you join with the [[Big Bad]] as his minion, kill him and take his place, or kill him and are reunited with your lover.

** In the ''[[New World of Darkness (Tabletop Game)|New World of Darkness]]'', ''every'' character type has a variation on the Morality rating (Morality being the human version). What happens if it hits zero depends on the character type; for a human, zero Morality is absolute, cold-blooded sociopathy, usually accompanied by insanity (since losing Morality often causes the character to develop Derangements). In ''[[Vampire: The Requiem (Tabletop Game)|Vampire: the Requiem]]'', the moral standard is still Humanity, and zero renders them unthinking monsters, as before.

** ''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken (Tabletop Game)|Werewolf : The Forsaken]]'' has 'Harmony', which determines the situations in which a werewolf enters "Death Rage", where he or she turns into a ferocious monster who kills foes and friends nearby or runs for a safe location. All werewolves risk it during combat, but those with lower Harmony risk the violent version every time they are insulted, have their authority challenged, or even if they burn themselves on the stove trying to cook. ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse (Tabletop Game)|Werewolf : The Apocalypse]]'' and its Rage metric could also be seen as this, although while it punishes you for being too violent, it's also an important attribute to not let fall too low. 10 points of rage might result in a character killing and cannibalizing allies, but 0 points means that the character's healing ability and ability to shapeshift is minimal.

** ''[[Mage: The Awakening (Tabletop Game)|Mage: the Awakening]]'' has Wisdom, which reflects how prudently you use your magic. Using magic to harm a sentient being is actually a pretty bad sin, as are the standard murder, mind control, and soul theft. Oddly enough, you can actually get slightly dinged for [[Mundane Utility]], because bending the very power of the cosmos in order to boil an egg is selfish and just plain lazy.

** ''[[Promethean: The Created (Tabletop Game)|Promethean: the Created]]'' has Humanity, like with vampires, with the inversion that Prometheans are trying to ''ape'' humanity, which they have relatively little experience with, rather than trying to cling to old memories of morality.

** ''[[Changeling: The Lost (Tabletop Game)|Changeling: the Lost]]'' has Clarity, which isn't so much a Karma Meter as it is a [[Sanity Meter]], representing how easily you can keep yourself centered and distinguish fantasy from reality after getting [[Mind Rape|the mother of all mind rapes]] from [[The Fair Folk]]. Murder and theft are still sins, but so are things such as taking psychotropic drugs, spending too much time away from humanity, and experiencing unexpected life changes.

** ''[[Hunter: The Vigil (Tabletop Game)|Hunter: the Vigil]]'' has Morality, the standard mortal measure. However, hunters can alter their moral thresholds to be more in line with the Vigil. They'll just have to take a penalty to social actions that mounts the more their moral code skews away from the norm.

** ''[[Genius: The Transgression (Tabletop Game)|Genius: The Transgression]]'' has Obligation, representing the [[Mad Scientist|Genius's]] personal connection to "normal" humanity. Treating humans as disposable or replaceable (Mengele gets quoted) damages it; at the highest levels, ''surgery'' calls for a check. Hit zero and you start cackling.

** ''[[Geist: The Sin Eaters (Tabletop Game)|Geist: The Sin Eaters]]'' uses Synergy, a measure of how well the Sin-Eater and their [[Our Ghosts Are Different|geist]] get along. Acts such as murder to restore health and consuming ghosts for [[Mana|Plasm]] ding the meter, as well as [[Came Back Wrong|dying and coming back more than once]]. If you reach 0, you become a soulless creature cowering in fear at the sights of the Underworld.

*** Sin-Eaters have it even worse than most. If they die, they come back to life, but lose one point of Synergy, and two points of ''maximum'' Synergy. If their maximum Synergy is reduced to 0 by this, they're either subject to [[Final Death]], or go through the above, but worse; a geist who chooses to linger in its host body after the Sin-Eater's soul has been shredded is sooner or later invariably driven homicidally insane by the tortured remnants of its former host's soul -- andsoul—and given that they're already [[Anthropomorphic Personification|Anthropomorphic Personifications]]s of Death fused with human ghosts, this is a very, ''very'' bad thing. For some reason, both these and the more moderate version above are referred to as "The Wretched."

** "Minor" supernaturals, like Psychics, Thaumaturges, and Immortals also use Morality. This is not good for Blood Bathers, one of the forms of Immortal -- theirImmortal—their method of immortality, at best, with a particularly forgiving and not especially vile [[Blood Bath|Blood Bathing]]ing ritual, involves being permanently camped at the low end of the Morality Meter, just waiting for a ''really'' atrocious act to send them into sociopathic depravity. More commonly, it sends them unavoidably screaming off the Evil end of the Karma Meter, sooner or later. Unsurprisingly, the game recommends that [[Player Character]] Blood Bathers be constructed so they're at the former end.

* The ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (Tabletop Game)|Dungeons and& Dragons]]'' campaign setting [[Ravenloft]] has a variation in the form of Dark Powers Checks: If you perform an evil deed that the [[Game Master]] feels deserving, he rolls a percentage die to judge if it attracts attention from the [[Cosmic Horror|Dark Powers]], and, should the [[Random Number God]] dislike you, they start turning you into a [[One-Winged Angel|literal]] [[Complete Monster]]. Should you perform a deed of ''exceptional'' evil, you may eventually find yourself a [[Evil Overlord|darklord]] of your own domain-too bad in both cases it's a [[Blessed Withwith Suck|true curse]]. Also noted for being rather unforgiving-although it has reservations for [[Pay Evil Unto Evil]], there are just some deeds the baddies don't deserve.

* White Wolf's other main game line ''[[Exalted (Tabletop Game)|Exalted]]'' has a variant of this: acting against your Virtues costs willpower and gives you Limit which when full makes you go crazy for a little while. However as the virtues [[Blue and Orange Morality|don't really correspond to modern morality]], and resisting magical [[Mind Control]] also gives you limit, it almost doesn't count as this trope.

* ''[[Shadowrun (Tabletop Game)|Shadowrun]]'' uses a Karma Meter as its [[Experience Points]] -- performing—performing good acts of significance earns you (Good) Karma, which is used to advance your character. You explicitly ''can't'' get Karma for evil acts, no matter how grand or significant, and evil characters instead need to "buy" Karma with cash, representing philanthropy and good works to "buy off" their evil actions.

* ''[[Deadlands (Tabletop Game)|Deadlands]]'' has a Karma Meter that works in a largely negative fashion: committing certain, well-defined horrible actions nets certain [[Player Characters]] "Corruption" points. Once you have a number of Corruption points equal to your ''Spirit'' die type, you're in danger of losing your character to [[The Dark Side]]. This is meant to shepherd the PCs into the appropriate side in the settings' [[Black and White Morality]], but it [[Unfortunate Implications|could be interpreted as]] an assumption that all people are born in a state of [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness]] until they decide to [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|Jump Off The Slippery Slope.]] (Corruption is one reason you don't hear much about ''[[Deadlands]]'' [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampire]] [[Player Characters]]. They don't last long.)

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