Most memorable use of Karma/Bennies?

[C-Moon]

What's your most memorable use of Karma/Bennies in a game?

(Karama is the Suzerain translation of Bennies, I knew it as that first is all)


For me, it was the first time, failing a roll to grapple the mini-boss while the ice we were standing on cracked beneath us. I use my Karma and won the fight and finished him off. Roleplay wise it played off that he'd pinned me on the cracking ice, I then use the momentum and the ice to slide underneath him, wiping out his ankles before jumping up grabbing him midair and slamming him into the ice throwing me clear of the danger and him smashing through the surface and into the deep freezing waters where he, supposedly, died.



//Karama/Bennies explained for those who don't play Suzerain/SWADE

Players start each game session with three “Bennies” (American slang for “benefits”), represented by poker chips, gaming stones, the official Bennies we make for all of our games, or other tokens that signify a little bit of good luck or fate. Bennies are discarded at the end of each session — use them or lose them! They can be used to reroll a trait, recover from shaken, soak rolls, draw a new action card, reroll damage, regain power points (Pulse in Suzerain) and influence the story (i.e. find an extra clue if you're stuck).

[GrayDeath]

Well, the most memorable was the actual first time we used it.

Our group was looting one of 7 "Dungeons" the continents god of thieves had created, all with the intent that they BE looted...but only by the worthy.

So, my Wizard (very big spell selection but not much power) and 2 more were the only people left to go at the second to last challenge, walking/running through a rotating tunnel that randomly sprung Spikes.
Now being a Wizard and hence puny I buffed myself, and got to it.

And promptly got critically hit and died....I thought, until another palyer remembered I had all 3 Karma points left. So I spent 1 to not die and a second to downgrade the wound to not slowing me down, and got to the end of the tunnel, using another benny to avoid being crushed to death.

Then our theif easy as pie walked through it. My Wizard was angry, and I ahstily attempted the next challenge...which forced me to hold onto a sheer wall, which given my Wizard was neither dextrous nor strong, I failed...and fell to my death.

The thief bt looted the most expensive stuff, and didnt need more than 1 bennie the whole adventure....grrr....

[The Glyphstone]

In one of my Rogue Trader sessions, the group was fighting a massive demonically possessed servitor in a shameless DOOM homage, in a big coliseum-style arena. The boss was very low on health and charging up its cannon that would one-shot any character who hadn't taken cover behind terrain. One PC - the tech-priest - chose to stand their ground and gamble on killing the boss before it fired - they missed their hail-mary attack but on the Fate Point re-roll (bennie equivalent), they scored a 1% odds critical-success hit that dealt exactly the amount of lethal damage needed.

[paladinn]

This may not belong here; but since the topic isn't tied to a specific game system, I personally always liked how Karma was used in the Marvel Superheroes RPG. Karma was earned via role play, winning battles, rescuing the innocent, etc. Basically Karma could be used to directly influence dice rolls or banked to fund advancement. Increases to stats, skills or powers were bought with earned Karma. Pretty cool system all in all.

Just my $.02

[JeenLeen]

We had something we called "death tokens" in a game, which were rewarded for excellent roleplay. They could be used to either 1) soak a level of damage so we don't die if we die, or 2) give 1 xp, if we had less total xp than the total party. It was for an oWoD game, and we had gotten an xp difference since the DM (to avoid PC turnover) said we lose 4 xp when making a new character if the old one dies.

Most memorable use is probably an extra allowance. We were a group of mages, with an NPC werewolf ally. One player decided to do something foolish after an "are you sure?" and was taunting the werewolf. DM decided it made sense to do a Rage roll. Even checked the actual moon pattern to see what it was on that day in history, and it was whatever is worst for Rage rolls. NPC raged and killed the mage. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but we were raiding a major Construct (e.g., bad guy base) the next day and there was no reasonable way to work a new PC in. DM let him spend a death token to retcon his actions.
Surprisingly, that PC died in combat during the mission anyhow, albeit via a sacrificial move that helped us escape.
(In the Mage setting, CERN is rather reasonably a very tough place to break into.)