Karma Meter: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
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{{quote|''"It seems as though the floodgates are beginning to creak open on ''[[Infamous (video game series)|In Famous]]'', 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 ''[[Infamous (video game series)|In Famous]]''.}}
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=== [[Action Adventure]] ===
* Perhaps surprisingly for a game where [[Villain Protagonist|the entire premise is being evil]], ''[[Overlord]]'' has a karma meter in the form of the "corruption" meter, which essentially gauges whether you're a totally self-serving, [[Ax Crazy]], [[0% Approval Rating]] madman or a [[Noble Demon]] [[Villain with Good Publicity]] who helps out the public to earn their support while on your quest for revenge.
** ''[[Overlord]] 2'' switches over to a Tyranny system with the extremes of "Destruction" and "Domination." Destruction is [[Ax Crazy]] mass murderer again, but Domination is less [[Noble Demon]] and more cruel slavemaster, treating those around you as tools and
* ''[[Infamous (video game series)|In Famous]]''. As the recipient of [[Shock and Awe|electricity based superpowers]], Cole has to choose whether to use them to help others, or help himself. Notable in the fact that helping people will usually ''hurt'' you, with a long (but temporary) effect. Hurting innocents will still give you negative Karma, but it's possible to be extremely evil just by looking out for number one. Early examples include scaring off citizens to secure a supply drop all for yourself or letting them take their fair share, attacking police on your own or inciting a riot to let bystanders take some of the heat, and turning off a water supply valve which poisons you or getting some hapless oaf to get poisoned for you. Generally speaking, evil equates to "selfish", and good equates to "selfless". Your karma directly affects how your powers develop, and each karma-side has an exclusive power, as well.
** Like several other games listed here, your final karma, as well as the ending received, are determined by [[Last Second Karma Choice|a specific choice just before the final boss.]] There's an interesting spin on it, though; the story event involved in taking the evil choice can leave absolutely ''no doubt'' about Cole's malevolence. Even if you make this choice with full positive karma, ''the karma meter locks.''
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* In ''[[Epic Mickey]]'', acting heroically will maintain Mickey's modern form, while acting like a Jerk Ass will cause him to revert to his original design... at least, [[What Could Have Been|that's what would have been]]. Instead, Mickey will attract "Guardians". A sort of [[Fairy Companion]].
** Mickey will also become more blotty and drippy if you work toward the "evil" side of the Karma Meter, and will drip less if you work toward the "hero" side. The characters walking around also change mannerisms depending on how "Good" you are.
* 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
=== [[Beat'Em Up]] ===
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=== [[Driving Game]] ===
* In a rare sports game example, ''NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup'' has a career mode with a
=== [[Fighting Game]] ===
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* In ''[[Dark Forces Saga|Jedi Knight]]'', your Karma Meter results in an either-or ending. You either resist the urge to kill {{spoiler|Jan, your best friend, with no goddamned prompting whatsoever}}, or you ''do'' kill {{spoiler|Jan, your best friend, with no goddamned prompting whatsoever}}. After that point, the path is fixed no matter what you do. You either preserve the Valley of the Jedi or take over the galaxy, becoming a new Emperor. One of those endings, by the way, ''isn't canon''. There aren't many ways to affect your Karma Meter negatively; you're relegated to either selecting Dark Side powers (which unless you do so exclusively generally won't turn you dark), or killing every civilian and noncombat droid you come across, or some combination of both.
** Believe us when we say that not killing every civilian in the game is [[Dronejam|harder than it sounds]].
** ''Jedi Academy'', meanwhile, ''seems'' to have a karma meter, based on what Force powers you
* In ''[[Bioshock]]'', 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.
** Harvest? Try ''didn't save''! Have to rush out of an area because you suddenly find yourself with very little health, no medkits, and don't want to have to track back from that last vitachamber? Well you better not make a choice like that again, you horribly selfish monster... And that includes just not being able to find the last little <s>hideously mutated bitch with a freakish protector</s> sister in an area...
** There are two v/o files recorded for the bad ending in ''Bioshock''. Both have the exact same text, but the tone of voice is entirely different; if you only gave in to your lust for ADAM once, Dr. Tenenbaum sounds weary and resigned when describing your descent into evil, but if you've killed multiple Little Sisters she's filled with righteous fury at you.
*** The aforementioned gifts actually render the karma meter meaningless, because it actually makes the choice mathematical rather than
** 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
*** {{spoiler|This also affects Sophia Lamb's fate, as it will determine if Eleanor will rescue her mother or drown her.}}
* ''[[Red Faction]] 2'' has a morality system of sorts. The only impact it really has is allowing you to get 4 slight dialog changes during the [[Where Are They Now? Epilogue]]. Completing hidden bonus objectives helps boost the meter up, but accidentally [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|(or not)]] killing civilians spikes it down a bit.
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=== [[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
=== [[Hack and Slash]] ===
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** This is also played on smaller scales at various points in the games, with generals betraying you if you perform specific, horrible actions during missions. This also comes into play during modes like DW4's Xtreme Mode. It does take a somewhat larger amount of bad acts, but constantly doing things like capturing girls hostage to be taken as sex slaves, or randomly killing your allies [[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything|(that usually don't do any fighting anyway)]] will cause your recruited party members to gradually lose respect for you, [[Video Game Cruelty Punishment|until they eventually get sick of you and turn.]] Of course, [[Video Game Caring Potential|saving peasants from monsters and generals from bandit raids]] will make them love you, and it's generally it's these good deeds that nab you more party members and good items to begin with.
=== [[MMORPG
* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' has Fame Points as part of it's ''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.
* The canceled ''[[Ultima]] X'' was planned to use an eightfold karma system similar to ''Ultima IV'' (see below in RPG) where the different morals would frequently conflict. An example the developers gave is a quest where you are tasked with hunting down a thief, and learn that he stole to buy food for his starving family. You could then follow Compassion or Justice by letting the thief go or have him face the punishment for his crime. To further muddle the issue, if you returned the stolen item you would learn that the quest-giver is not the legitimate owner, which in turn gives the choice between Honor in sticking to the original agreement or Honesty in delivering the item to its proper place.
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=== [[Real Time Strategy]] ===
* ''Medieval: [[Total War]] II'' gives a Karma Meter to each general in your army. The good side, Chivalry, is cultivated by things like freeing prisoners and keeping cities happy. This is rewarded by increasing happiness and population growth of a city when the general is managing it, and increasing the morale of all soldiers under his command. The evil side, Dread, comes from executing prisoners, excessively taxing populations, arranging many many assassinations and more. This increases public order when garrisoned in a city and decreases the morale of all troops fighting against him. Given that soldiers that flee are likely to be captured and executed when facing an evil general, you'd think it would be the other way around...
** 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
=== [[Roguelike]] ===
* ''[[Nethack]]'' uses an odd variation where the meter doesn't measure how lawful or chaotic you are, but rather how ''well'' you're doing at being lawful/neutral/chaotic. While there are some actions that affect the meter differently based on your alignment (chaotic characters get a bonus for sleeping with [[Horny Devils|succubi and incubi]]) and role (knights get a penalty for attacking fleeing or sleeping monsters), the biggest impact is the same for all characters: killing hostile monsters usually boosts (and never penalizes) the meter, and killing peaceful monsters always penalizes it. That's right, the game considers a chaotic character bathing in the blood of innocent bystanders a bad thing (since letting chaotic characters get away with killing peaceful monsters would break [[Competitive Balance]] with regards to players choosing which alignment to play).
* ''[[ADOM]]'' has a Karma Meter that is only partially
* ''[[Lords Of The Realm]] 3'', a real-time strategy game, introduced three types of karma meter: chivalry, Christianity, and honor. Using knights, building churches, and fighting honorably will build the meters, allowing you to attract champions, templars, and even four archangels to your cause. Using mercenaries, burning churches, and executing captured knights will make the meters plummet, allowing you to recruit various villainous types, and eventually some friendly chaps named [[Horsemen of the Apocalypse|Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death.]] Do try to go one or the other, because [[No Points for Neutrality|being neutral gets you nothing.]]
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** Though in ''KOTOR'' original, regardless of your Karma Meter, your final side is chosen in one action right near the end of the game, as is rather typical for SW games. ''KOTOR II '' does a bit better at this, seemingly.
*** If you play a Dark Side character all the way through the game to reach the very base of the meter, go through the vital conversation mostly dark side but make the ONE vital light-side choice that pushes you up into low neutral, you can get back into deep Dark Side during the endgame and still get the Light ending with a pale, evil-looking character... not to mention {{spoiler|Bastila apparently coming back from the dead, despite being killed in the Star Forge for DS points}}. Likewise, you can play through the whole game on the Light Side, make the one Dark Side choice, and get the Dark Side ending as a Happyshiny Jedi.
** Of course, your Karma Meter determines how well you can use various Force
*** ''KOTOR II'' was on the whole a lot more ambiguous than its predecessor with the Light Side/Jedi = Pure Good and Dark Side/Sith = Pure Evil dichotomy. While in the first game you were pretty much either a paragon of virtue or a complete monster, it was a lot easier to play a flawed, almost antiheroic light side character or a dark side character who was closer to being a magnificent bastard. Or really pretty much anything on the scale.
*** The main problem with ''KOTOR I'''s meter was that there were only barely enough points to go High Light or High Dark. You had to do everything one way or another to gain the appropriate bonus. ''KOTOR II'' simply gave more choices, and thus more points.
** ''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
*** Kreia doesn't have to be in the party. If she isn't with you, she'll berate you using telepathy.
*** Not to mention that numerous of the supporting characters in ''KOTOR II'' have their own Karma meter that is influenced by the protagonist's own... with special events unlocked for pushing theirs to the extremes. The funny thing is that if you make them hate the protagonist, their karma meter pushes to the opposite extreme of the protagonist's which can ALSO unlock the special events... {{spoiler|i.e. Force sensitive characters like Atton Rand can be trained to be Light Side Jedi if you're Dark Side, or vice versa... which allows for a much more varied array of skills in the party}}.
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* ''[[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.
** It's an interesting example even though it's underused, as it's not really a decision between "good" and "evil" so much as "good captain" or "bad captain". The game encourages a balance between daring and consideration of your crew-you have to consider each question carefully because too far along the scale of "bold and daring" becomes "foolish and reckless", but too cautious becomes "cowardly".
* ''[[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
** Although there is a way to remove all infamy (it's necessary for a certain quest chain) as well as an item that gives you a new identity, preventing you from gaining any for real if you're wearing it, although it does set your infamy to 250 while you're wearing it, and all guards attack you on sight.
** Once you become a high ranked assassin of the Black Hand, you will be given a mission that requires you to kill an entire family. After completing it, you'll notice your infamy score has gone up by a whole one point. Five lives are worth one point. But there's more: a mission for the thieves guild requires you to steal a magical staff made out of ice, and then return it. Even though it's not very powerful, it holds a meaning for all the mages in the world, so this mission will bring you two infamy points.
* ''[[Fallout 1]]'' only offers a general karma meter. ''[[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
** ''[[Fallout 3]]'' has drawbacks for both negative AND positive karma - Talon Company Mercenaries will begin randomly spawning to attack you if your Karma hits Very High, while Peacekeepers will start gunning for you if your Karma hits Very Low. Talon Company mercs are rather nasty, spawning with energy weapons, Combat Armor, and high-quality assault rifles, even if you're level 4.
** Limiting the
** If there's a single subversion in ''Fallout 3'' of this trope, it's the Impartial Mediation Perk that offers +30 Speech...so long as you are Neutral. This is the ''only'' benefit offered in the game for staying Neutral, if you don't count the ability to recruit a few Neutral-only companions and avoiding energy weapon rape at the hands of Talon Company Mercs or Peacekeepers.
** [[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.
* ''[[Baldur'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 [[
** It's also possible to change your alignment without altering your reputation, in the Hell demiplane you go to at the end of the second game, which may exist primarily in your own head. For example, yelling at Sarevok that you'll transform into the Slayer turns you evil - even if you don't actually do it. And this doesn't have the same effects as reputation. You can spend the entirety of the Throne of Bhaal as an officially Lawful Evil paladin, retain all paladin abilities against the rules of the universe, had a reputation of twenty, and have never really done anything evil.
** ''Throne Of Bhaal'' also has another, minor karma meter going on when the Solar tests you in the demiplane and the sum of your answers to her determines what one of your two alternative ending options means in practice.
* ''[[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]]
** ''[[Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne]]'' had ''five'' endings, each based upon a different philosophy. At certain points in the game, the main representative of each philosophy straight-out asks if you agree with them, and later asks for a confirmation. Answering in the affirmative twice locks you into that ending, unless you do it with more than one path, in which case the game looks at how you answered certain questions posed throughout the game and tallies up your affinity score for each philosophy. There is also a sixth ending that you get locked into if you complete the [[Bonus Level of Hell]].
** ''[[Strange Journey]]'' returns to the classic [[Order Versus Chaos]]
* ''[[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: The Next Generation|Captain Picard]] and Renegade represents [[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.
** Paragons tend be [[Ideal Hero|rather]] [[Neutral Good|nice]] [[Knight in Shining Armor|people]]. They seek [[Guile Hero|diplomatic and peaceful resolutions to situations]], [[Never Hurt an Innocent|save innocent people whenever and wherever possible, even if it means letting the bad guy get away]], and they believe in co-operation with [[The Federation|alien races and the Council]]. However, [[Beware the Nice Ones|Paragons show little mercy to]] [[Good Is Not Soft|corrupt or brutal individuals]].
** Renegades tend to be more [[Anti-Hero|edgy]], [[Badass|tough]] and [[Chaotic Neutral|morally]] [[Neutral Evil|ambivalent]], preferring [[Might Makes Right|to go in all guns blazing]], [[Humanity Is Superior|and a "humans come first" view to galactic politics]], favouring [[The Empire|the Alliance]] and [[Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters|Cerberus]]. Renegades are [[Determinator|ruthless]], [[Combat Pragmatist|pragmatic]] and they get the job done [[I Did What I Had to Do|no matter what]].
** ''[[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>
*** 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 with 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.
*** To be more specific, high Karma Meter grants free ranks in Charm/Intimidate, allowing the player to invest in combat skills instead. The penalizing hasn't gone anywhere, although the importance of twinking out combat skills was dramatically reduced compared to their previous works.
** ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' does away with non-combat skills and makes your ability to intimidate or charm people based entirely on your Renegade and Paragon points, respectively. This has the unfortunate side effect of penalising you heavily for not always picking the same thing, or even taking a more neutral approach.
*** It still does mean, though, that unlike most other games, you can take ''occasional'' opposite-alignment action without any problem whatsoever. Dedicated Paragon players, particularly, tend to have a few favorite Renegade choices that are just too satisfying to miss.
** The point of the [[Mass Effect]] system is to provide what is felt to be a more "realistic" approach to the
* The freeware RPG ''Wilfred The Hero'' divides spells into the ethical and unethical categories. Ethical spells increase your morality when used and require a sufficiently high morality rating to learn, and vice-versa for unethical spells. Unlike most examples, [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|this has no effect on the plot]].
* ''[[Arcanum|Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magic Obscura]]'' has a Karma Meter ranging from -100 to 100, with the protagonist starting out at 0. Many different things within the game affects this meter, mostly your actions in regards to quests and other similar things, like killing evil monsters or going on a rampage through some town. Depending on the value, certain characters might want to (or refuse to) join you, you might get offered different responses in dialogue, and if you commit certain acts (such as attacking a Good aligned creature with a Good character in your party) may result in them getting upset and eventually leaving the group. For some reason, evil actions include killing people in self-defense, fighting dirty cops who just murdered a civil rights activist, and honoring a demon-possessed man's request for you to kill him before he goes on another homicidal rampage.
* 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
* ''Nethergate'' had a few spots where you could perform good or evil acts and eventually be granted a reward based on your choices.
* ''[[Geneforge]]'' has a karma meter that determines what the factions think of you based on your words and actions. It essentially comes down to whether you support creation rights/the Rebels or creation control/the Shapers. Factions that share your view will be helpful to you and let you join them. Factions that don't will distrust you.
* ''[[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 [[
** ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'' fixed this problem in all three official campaigns.
* 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.
* ''[[Might and Magic]]'' has this, ranging from Notorious to Saintly.
* ''[[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
* ''[[Dragon Age]]'' is one [[BioWare]] game that notably ''doesn't'' apply a
** [[Zero Punctuation|Besides, you know, morality.]]
*** There is more to it. Certain things only happen if you've picked "good" or "bad" choices. Just, there is no general meter that you get good or bad "points" towards - it's handled per decision made. There's still at LEAST three ways to do pretty much anything in the game, and which way you choose (They're only sometimes the standard good-neutral-bad options) can change the way things go later.
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* ''[[Uplink]]'' has a 'neuromancer' rating, which starts at neutral and ranges from revolutionary (the best) to morally bankrupt (worst), and are analogous to [[Playful Hacker]] and [[The Cracker]], respectfully. Actions that equate to corporate espionage (stealing data, altering someone's educational or government history, and so on) push you towards Hacker, while willfully destructive actions (deleting data, crashing systems, falsely imprisoning someone, etc) will push you towards Cracker. The meter has little actual effect on the game itself, beyond affecting how clients think of you (people interested in data theft won't hire Crackers, while people interested in data destruction won't hire Hackers). There's also one action you can take (stealing the data containing the identities of your fellow Uplink agents and selling it) that will mark you as a Cracker no matter what actions you take thereafter.
* ''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 SaGa]]'' uses
** ''[[Romancing SaGa 3]]'' also had a Karma Meter, but this one was blatantly
* In [[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.
** It ''is'' connected to the size of the body trail he leaves behind him, although it's still possible to get the "good" monologue without doing a full-out [[Pacifist Run]]. His kill count will also affect some NPC dialogue and actions throughout the story.
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=== [[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
** The original game also has a ghostly NPC symbolizing each of the possibilities on the Karma Meter: Horace, the electrified ghost of a minor convict that was driven insane by the mundane horrors of prison and supernatural horrors of Carnate and killed his wife in a psychotic episode, and wants to stop Torque from succumbing like he did for Good; [[Projected Man]] Dr. Killjoy, a deranged psychiatrist dedicated to "helping" his patients no matter the cost and who has adopted Torque as his latest project for Neutral; and Hermes, a sadistic executioner who eventually killed himself in the gas chamber so he could see death from the other side, and who sees a possible kindred spirit in Torque for Evil.
* In the ''[[Oddworld]]'' series (except for ''Stranger's Wrath''), "Qarma" has only one variable - whether or not you save the NPC Mudokons, Fuzzles, etcetera. Its only plot impact is on the ending, but in the later games, Abe would act and sound depressed if he'd failed to save enough of them.
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* ''[[Ogre Battle]]'' has three Karma Meters. One is the standard good-vs-evil Alignment trait, and each soldier has it. Each soldier also has Charisma, which represents how [[Badass]] they look (kill enemies above your level, you look awesome, kill much weaker foes, you just look like a thug). These traits are used to determine what classes a unit can change into. The third meter, called Chaos Frame [[Wiki Magic|(does it make more sense in Japanese?)]] is your revolution's reputation as a whole, is affected by a whole raft of things, and determines what characters will join you and what ending you'll get.
** ''[[Tactics Ogre]]'' averts this for characters, replacing it with a Law-Neutral-Chaos system of [[Character Alignment]] that doesn't use a meter, but has a quasi-visible Chaos Frame that only affects which way you get screwed over in one ending.
* [[Nippon Ichi]] games (''[[La Pucelle]] Tactics'', ''[[Disgaea]]'', ''[[Phantom Brave]]'' and ''[[Makai Kingdom]]'') have invisible
* 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 [[0% 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.
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** ''[[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]]'' 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
** "Minor" supernaturals, like Psychics, Thaumaturges, and Immortals also use Morality. This is not good for Blood Bathers, one of the forms of
* The ''[[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 with 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]]'' 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.
* The old ''Marvel Super Heroes'' RPG has Karma points. The main problem with this is that it rewards [[Honor Before Reason]] almost obsessively, and saving a life is worth only 20 Karma, while knocking down a given area of city is worth -5. So if you save a life by knocking down four squares of city, you come out even. It essentially made a Punisher character unplayable, because you lost ''all'' your Karma if you killed, ''even to save lives''. You also take a Karma ding for mind control, owning a gun, [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|jaywalking]]...
** It was worse. There were karma penalties for missing press conferences, and letting crime go unpunished. You were better off making that date at the Town Square. Oh, and villains naturally had their own Karma system.
* ''[[Shadowrun]]'' uses a Karma Meter as its [[Experience Points]]
* ''[[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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