The Ancient Greek philosopher Plato talks of a higher plane of existence populated not by items but their ideal representations, of which everything we see is just a pale shadow. Many American Indian tribes speak of animals that can talk and stones that can move. And the Aborigines of Australia believe that there is a place behind reality, one reached by dreams, where anything can be created just by singing it into being. Is the Ideal Cosm the basis for these beliefs? Maybe. Or maybe it did not even exist until the 1940s when enough Core Earth children saw the images moving on the Saturday matinee screen and believed they were real? Maybe it is all of these, and more. The Infiniverse is a very big place, and reality can be a very tricky thing sometimes...
In game terms, every Ideal gets a certain number of free possibilities that are used by the GM - without the player's knowledge - when she feels that the character deserves a little help beyond their own possibilities and cards. These possibilities can be used to buy off damage, counter a possibility spent by an opponent, or even negate a setback result against the character or increase a roll that could otherwise fail, which normal possibilities cannot do. If the GM feels that a setback would be too disastrous, she may negate the effect - for that character only - by spending a Karma possibility. If she feels that a character shouldn't fail at a task, she can spend a Karma possibility after the result as been determined, and add her own die roll to the character's to create a new total.
The total number of possibilities that may be spent in this fashion each act of play is listed as the Karma skill. The skill, like Orrorshan Corruption, does not have a base statistic like other skills. Only the number of "adds" need be recorded. All Ideals start with one Karma, which cannot be increased with possibilities. Non-Ideals cannot gain the Karma skill during play except through transformation to the Ideal reality. Should the GM consistently spend the character's full Karma during each act of an adventure, she should consider increasing that character's Karma limit by one for furture adventures. The Karma limit will never go down, but the GM should not feel obliged to spend all of the Karma for a character that is not "playing well with others."
Another aspect of the Law of Karma is Instant Karma. Any act that intends harm - physical, emotional, whatever - to another being immediately creates a setback result for the offending character. This setback usually manifests as a +3 or +5 increase to a difficulty, or loss of the action entirely, but when combined with setbacks from the Drama Deck or skill results might cause a sixteen ton weight to appear from nowhere and squash the character flat! (Note that Instant Karma will never kill a character, but it should make a point.) The only inroad The Other Nameless One has had in eliminating the Law of Karma is in Instant Karma. A character will not suffer the effects of Instant Karma if the intended victim has attacked them first, or if they for some reason ask for it, during the current act. Note that if Ideal A attacks Ideal B, Ideal B may now attack Ideal A without Instant Karma retribution for the remainder of the act - but then Ideal A will be able to attack Ideal B without penalty as well! Instant Karma effects both natives and visitors to the Ideal reality. There is no limit to the number of setbacks that may effect a character in an act.
It is due to the influence of this Law that martial arts was never developed by the Ideals, even though their axioms support it. But with exposure to cosms such as Marketplace and the change in the Law regarding Instant Karma this is changing. In fact, The Man Who Draws Things has found that a certain pair of Japanese Storm Knights are quite adept at mindless destruction on a planetary scale, even though they claim it's not their fault...
Note: A mechanic for setting a Karma limit is not provided because Karma is not granted through a lucky roll of a die or through a high spirit, and the GM is urged to be careful in awarding an increase. Three Karma is reccomended for those characters that are really having fun, but not at another's expense. Five Karma should be only for those characters that really make the game enjoyable for everyone.
In addition to these three skills, the Law of Ideals interacts in small ways with the high magic and spirit axioms to produce minor effects. Damaged characters may find stars spinning around their head. An Ideal that spends a possibility to buy of the damage of a fireball my find herself still blackened and crispy, until the next round. Adrenaline cards spent to increase a running total may show up as speed lines shooting out behind the character, and Idea cards are always associated with a light bulb over its head.
The Man Who Draws Things finds that set World Laws bind his Art and limit his Vision. Lacking the power to disrupt the other Laws, he created one that would change at his whim and allow him to explore more fully his artistic muse. Every time the Ideal cosm appears, it has a new law and a new look, all at the whim of it's High Lord. Possibility rated Ideals have two options: either forget the third law, and let the GM come up with a new one for each adventure, or choose to stick with one existing world law from another cosm. If the character chooses a changing WL, they might also find their physical form changing as well - The Man Who Draws Things doesn't like Funny Animals "destroying the motif" of his Anime visions, and visa versa. Characters who choose an unchanging WL attract undue attention from The Man Who Draws Things and The Other Nameless One. As usual the GM has final approval, and is suggested to be careful with "unbalanced" world laws that only offer advantages without any drawbacks, such as the Nile Law of Action.
Some world laws that The Man Who draws Things has used in the past are:
Law of Anime - a character may spend as many personal possibilities on a single action as the number of rounds spent doing absolutely nothing immediately before said action (up to a maximum of five), not counting cards it may use or Karma the GM may choose to spend. A side effect of this law is that speed lines, a background device indicating rapid motion, spring up behind the character as they stand there motionless.
Law of J - any character with a middle intial of "J" recieves an additional possibility per act.
Law of Joe - all attacks against living things are at -5/-5, and attacks at tools - primarily guns and vehicles - are at +3/+3. For some reason The Man Who Draws Things always uses this when dropping in on the United States Army.
Law of Marvin - gives the former Kantovian/currently Aztec Darkness Device, Hutzipuloci, mobility, gospogs, and an explosive space modulator capable of destroying the planet that trapped it back in the dead cosm of Kantovia. And then it provides Storm Knights to foil it at every turn. The Other Nameless One really, really, really enjoys this one!
Law Of Old Mr. Jenkins - the True death of any Horror whose Perseverance has been exceeded becomes "removing the rubber mask and pointing out that it is just Old Mr. Jenkins who used to own the amusement park on the hill." This alone has forced the Gaunt Man to give up trying to incorporate the Ideals into an Ecology of Fear and order his minions to kill them on sight. Something that has proven easier said than done.
Law of Everybody Gets One - probably The Man Who Draws Things' most spectacular failures. This world law was intended to grant every Ideal it's own Darkness Device, immediately corrupting them and making the Ideal cosm the most powerful invader ever. When the smoke cleared, half the cosm was gone and nothing much had changed. Except to this day The Other Nameless One has trouble with acronyms - "T - O - O - N, that spells The Other Nameless One" - and cannot pronounce the word "axiom" correctly.
Read a Darness Device Bedtime Story.
Check out the Ideal High Lord and Darkness Device.
Try New Skills.