There are basically three main forces in nature: Magical ones, Elemental ones, and Spiritual ones. Wizards and Magic Users in general draw upon and are able to control the magical forces (often referred as the Craft), druids and elementalists rely on the power of elements and nature, and finally psionicists and priests are able to shape and control the spiritual forces of mind and soul. But there are also fighting schools that have developed during millennia of wars and spiritual research that are able to draw the mystical energies they use to fight from all of these three forces (Magic, Elements and Mind-Soul): these are the Secret Schools of Martial Arts.

These schools have developed in the dimension of Draconia, on the planet that bears the same name, and its disciples are among the most powerful and deadliest of foes when they are met in combat. There are 7 main schools, but others have been developed by other races when they learnt from the fighters of these schools how to use the force called KARMA (the power of their inner soul combined with that of the world around them). The 7 most famous and powerful schools are as follows (in order of foundation):

1. Divine School of Horia
2. Sacred School of Nayat
3. Infernal School of Kaar
4. Imperial School of Caergon
5. Holy Light of Kento
6. Universal School of Sarkom
7. Gem of the Ices (aka School of Laïs)

Each school is based on different characteristics and draws upon different energies, and each has its own special passes that distinguish its disciples from the others and from the normal fighters. A fighter can belong to only one school of fighting and cannot learn other ways of using his Karma. There is only one Successor for each school at a time (or one Successor for each branch of the school, as in the case of Nayat, Caergon and Sarkom), that is to say only one person is destined to learn and use the Final Pass or Secret Pass of the school. Anyone who challenges the Chosen One (who is selected by the former Successor) or refuses to accept him as the true Successor is bound to meet his demise at the very hands of the Successor himself; no trespasses are tolerated on this matter! Also, each school has its code of honour and ethics and every disciple must know it and swear to obey it in order to be accepted by the masters of the school. Every race and every class of characters is allowed to learn how to fight using Karma, even though some schools may have their own restrictions due to the ethical code of honour and the internal rules they must follow.

The fighter that belongs to a Secret School is taught how to use and control his Fighting Force, called Karma and measured in Karma Points (KP). The KP available depends on the Characteristics of the character and each school draws upon a combination of different characteristics to calculate KP. The following list explains which characteristics must be summed to calculate the initial KP of the fighter, the Base Score, with the first one being the Primary Ability (or PA), that will become important later:

1. Horia = Dexterity + Intelligence
2. Nayat = Dexterity + Strength
3. Kaar = Strength + Intelligence
4. Caergon = Strength + Wisdom
5. Kento = Constitution + Wisdom
6. Sarkom

• Earth = Wisdom + Strength
• Water = Wisdom + Constitution
• Air = Wisdom + Dexterity
• Fire = Wisdom + Intelligence
• Light = Wisdom + Wisdom
• Darkness = Wisdom + Charisma

7. Gem = Constitution + Dexterity

(Optional) School of the Demon Family = Constitution + Strength

The sum of the two Characteristics is the Base KP Score that a Zero Level fighter of martial arts has got.

The fighter can use his KP in 8 different ways:

1. Simple Attack
2. Special Attack (or Special Pass)
3. Parry
4. Block
5. Protection Shield
6. Aura
7. Jump
8. Power Up

Explanation of terms:

• he can continue to Block his opponent using also KP to make harder for the blocked character to free himself (in this case he cannot do other actions but speak or activate magic items that require only a verbal command -not wands for example)
• he can try to hit the opponent with or without KP (normal throw to hit: the target’s AC is calculated without Dex bonus or shield and penalised by 4 points) and continue to block him, although it is more difficult

• Awe: all people in the range of the aura fear the fighter and have a penalty of -1 to all their Hit, Damage, Initiative rolls and to Saving throws, and a -2 to Morale checks, while they fight against the character
• Respect: all the people in the range of the aura feel the fighter is trustworthy and reliable, and their Reactions rolls are modified by one category (it is thereby impossible they attack him on the spot unless he threatens them first). This doesn’t apply to overtly hostile people who already hate the character.

The fighter can advance in his Karmic Level only by gaining experience points through combat. He gains XPs only when he fight using KP, not from treasures nor from XP bonus, or when he performs some incredible feat using his special abilities acquired with his mastery of Karma. The fighter can also gain XPs by practising and training by himself: in this case he acquires 2.000 Xps per month of training, during which he cannot do anything else but strengthening his physical and psychical forces by different training means (he cannot simply stop after 2 weeks, gain only 1.000 Xps and then go adventuring, he must complete his training!). Also, if he defeats an enemy using KP but also other means (magic or weapons), he gains for his Karmic Level only the percentage of Xps appropriate to the damage he inflicted to the creature with KP (ex: Ryu fights against a Hydra that has 40 Hp and does 10 Hp with Karma and the remaining using his sword. In this case, assessing the Hydra a theoretical XP value of 4.000 Xps, he gains 1.000 Xps in his Karmic Level and 3.000 Xps as a normal fighter).

Only very capable individuals can enter a secret school of fighting, and before being officially accepted he must prove to the masters he is worthy and eligible for their teachings: thereby only people that have a Base Score (sum of the two main characteristics of the school) of 25 points minimum can be accepted into the dojo, but every would be disciple must spend at least 1 month practising with one fighter of that school in order to be tested before the judgement is pronounced. Then the real teachings begin, and each new pupil has a different probability to learn how to use Karma as his master teach him: the probability depends on the Level of the teacher and the Intelligence and Wisdom of both the teacher and the disciple; the time spent to learn how to fight with KP also depends on the level of the teacher, according to Table 2 (see below). If at the end of the time noted the pupil has not mastered the art of Karma fighting, he can begin anew to study the secret martial arts even with the same teacher, but the probability is unchanged (unless of course he decides to find a more expert master).

Only those fighters with a Base Score of 33 can be eligible to become the new Successor: if more than one at a time is present within the school, than they have to fight among themselves to win the title of Great Master of the School. Usually, the former Successor has the last word on choosing his heir at the head of the school, but if he doesn’t want to decide, then the combat between the would be Successors is necessary to solve the issue: he who wins is the new Successor, whereas the defeated must acknowledge the opponent’s superiority and renounce to his aspirations; those who don’t are destined to meet their fate at the end of the other fighters’ or of the Successor himself and are banned from the school and prohibited to teach, use or even talk about their former fighting capabilities. Usually the Succession Match is to death, but it ends also when one of the two contestants retires: if the contestants are more than two, then a multi-match game is used, with the winner as the one who bears more victories. Only the Successor is entitled to know and use the Secret Pass of the School, either taught by the former Successor or learnt by reading ancient scrolls or runes that explains how to focus the mystical energies to produce the deadliest pass of them all. No other fighter can use or learn it, even though the others can advance past the 10th level of experience (the Secret Pass can be mastered by the Successor only at 10th level, but he can be elected as Successor of the School earlier -usually from the 6th level or above) just like the Master does.

• Usually fighters of the Secret Schools heavily rely on their sole capacities to overcome the difficult situations and thus they are hindered by the use of any kind of armour. This doesn’t mean they cannot use it, but only that it interferes with their ability to draw upon their Karma and thus each armour adsorbs some KP when worn by a special fighter, rendering these KP inaccessible to the character (he still has them, but they cannot be used since they are somehow absorbed by the armour). Each armour adsorbs a different amount of KP as written in Table 3 (see below).
• Also, whenever a fighter uses all his KP (that is to say he reaches 0 KP), he passes out for due to extreme tension and remains unconscious for 1d4 minutes, during which he cannot regenerate KP.
• An unmodified roll of 20 (on d20) for a Karma Check ALWAYS means the target has taken absolutely NO DAMAGE at all (but the attacker consumed the KP used in the blow anyway). The Karma Check cannot be lower than 3, so that a natural roll of 1 or 2 on 1d20 always means a failure.
• A fighter cannot advance in his Karmic Level more than in his class level (ex: a 4th level Priest cannot advance to 5th Karmic Level until he has earned enough Xps to become a 5th level Priest. This doesn’t mean that he loses the experience he gains using KP until he is of high enough level in his class, but only that even if he has the appropriate Xps to learn and use all 5th Karmic level abilities, he cannot do it, even though he can go on earning Xp for his Karmic level progression). When he reaches name level for his class however (9th level usually), this restriction doesn’t apply anymore.

The fighter can also design and invent new special passes when he is sufficiently experienced (4th Karmic Level or higher). In order to do so, he must think about a pass that is based on his own way of fighting and using Karma (that is to say related to his school) and then practice it for a period of time, at the end of which he determines if he has developed the pass as he had planned or not. For game terms, the base chance is [(Base Score + Karmic Level) x3] - minimum KP needed and the time spent inventing the pass is 2 days every 5 minimum KP needed (the minimum KP needed being the minimum KP the fighter must spend in order to use that pass -every Secret Pass has minimum KP).

If the roll succeeds, he has invented the new pass and can use it freely, gaining also 100 XP every minimum KP needed for the pass in his Karmic Level; if he fails, he must begin anew practising it (same time, but base chance is improved of 2% points, cumulative with each try). Obviously, a fighter cannot invent a Secret Pass that already exists in another school and that is higher than is Karmic Level allows (this depends on the minimum KP needed). While he is trying to invent a new pass he cannot do other things (like go adventuring), and if he is interrupted for more than 10 hours he must restart from the beginning.

For example: Ryu (6th Karmic level in the Divine School of Horia) tries to invent a new pass that requires a minimum 30 KP. His base score is 30 (DEX 17 + INT 13) and thus he passes 12 days practising and his base chance of success is: [(30 + 6) x3] - 30 = 108 - 30 = 78% He rolls a 82, failing: he decides to retry and begins practising again (for another 12 days); his base chance is now 78 + 2 = 80% If he rolls under 80 he succeeds, otherwise he can try again adding another 2 percentage points to the base chance until he finally succeeds (max base chance 99%).

Tab. 1 GENERAL REFERENCE TABLE FOR KARMIC LEVEL ADVANCEMENT

(a) these are the KP gained for each level and added to the Base KP Score (which is the sum of the 2 main characteristics used by the secret school the fighter belongs to).

For example, Ryu belongs to Divine School of Horia (DEX+INT) and has Dex of 17 and Int of 16 points: his base KP are 16+17=33 KP At 1st level he will gain another 10 KP, raising to 43 KP, at 2nd level another 10 KP going up to 53 and so on. For each level after the 10th only 2 KP are gained (Note: there is NO LEVEL LIMIT to the fighting schools, so theoretically a fighter could also reach 100th level!)

(b) this is the KP Regeneration Rate of the fighter, that is to say the number of KP he automatically regenerates each round. He always regenerates these KP at the beginning of the round, no matter what he has done the round before or is going to do in the incoming melee round (unless of course he has passed out because he used all his KP -see Special Hindrances above); obviously the regenerated KP will not bring his KP above his normal maximum level.

(c) this is the Karma Check involved whenever the fighter is attacked with KP (it is normally used to halve or reduce to 1/4 the damage taken and it is always permitted, unless otherwise stated by the attack used -see Special Attacks). Every person who is not trained in the use of Karma is treated like a Zero Level fighter and receives a KC of 14 on d20, modified by bonus/penalties due to his Constitution score (the same bonus/penalties apply to all the fighters trained to use Karma). NOTE: the KC cannot be lowered under 3, and thus a roll of 1 or 2 is always a failure, whereas an unmodified roll of 20 means the target has taken NO DAMAGE at all, even though the fighter loses the KP spent for the attack (see Special Hindrances). Magical protections (such as Rings of Protection) do not influence the KC at all!

(d) the more the fighter becomes experienced in the art of fighting and using his Karma, the more his skin and muscles toughen making for him easier to sustain any damage. The Immunity is the amount of damage the character’s skin and muscles can adsorb from EACH blow without any ill effect for the fighter, a sort of body armour that prevents the fighter from being harmed.

For example, Ryu is a 8th Karmic Level fighter and is hit by two ogres armed with swords: the first one does 5 Hp of damage, the second one only 3. Thank to his Immunity, Ryu takes only 1 hp of damage from the first attack and is not even harmed by the second, the sword merely scratching his skin.

As a rule, whenever a Saving Throw or a Karma Check is involved, first subtract the Immunity from the total damage taken, then roll to halve (if possible). If also a Protection Shield is used, first detract the KP of the Shield from the total damage, then the Immunity, and then proceed with the Saving Throw or KC (if any).

(e) the more experience the fighter gains, the more difficult is for his enemies to hit him, because he becomes nimbler and can predict his opponent’s moves more easily. AC bonus represents this ability to dodge and predict the opponents’ attacks and should be only counted against the attacks the fighter is aware of (i.e. he can see or hear -Blind Fighting proficiency or the thief ability Hear Noise- his opponent attacking).

(f) as the character gains experience fighting, his physical strength and agility also improves, allowing him move (run and walk) faster than the average man: the Movement bonus represents this improvement and it’s a permanent effect (the fighter must add the bonus to his base movement rate and to the subsequent alterations for running, walking, swimming, etc.).

(g) this entry refers to the magic weapon the fighter can be compared to and is counted only for the pourpose of determining which monsters he can effectively harm (the dweomer has not to be added to his Hit or Damage roll). Note that until the fighter reaches 6th Karmic Level, his attacks with KP cannot harm any creature immune to normal weapons, and that the magical dweomer is counted only when he uses KP (if he attacks bare handed but WITHOUT spending KP, his blow won’t harm any creature immune to normal weapons even though he’s 10th Karmic level!).

Tab. 2 LEARNING PROBABILITIES AND MODIFIERS

(¹) Only characters with a Primary Ability score of 9 points or higher can be accepted into a secret school: those with lower scores are automatically rejected after 1 week of their pre-training.

(²) Teacher’s Wisdom and Disciple’s Intelligence scores can change the learning probability according to the following subtable -Tab. 2a- (bonus and penalties are cumulative):

Tab. 2a WISDOM AND INTELLIGENCE ADJUSTMENTS

Tab. 3 ARMORS AND KARMA POINTS

(¹) These are referred to armours used with OD&D rules: modify the KP for other types of armour not listed here according to the numbers given above

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