[Dicing Guide] Magic/Overgiving/Resolve

[Gillar]

Howdy all! So I have been working on an addition to the Dicing Guide; a guide which seems to have gone over, more or less, relatively well. The Dicing Guide itself will be going into Lore soon. That being said, I've developed another related part to the Dicing Guide that addresses magic use, overgiving and the ability to resist various mental, physical and spiritual attacks. While rolling dice in Discord to determine actions isn't for everyone, I am hoping that along with the Dicing Guide, this addition will help you work out issues you and/or your thread partners may have in dealing with writing about magical conflicts in a fair and hopefully sensible way. Thus I introduce the idea of a character trait known as, Resolve. This is a preliminary draft of the idea and this thread is meant for discussion and play test to see if it actually works in practice. It is incomplete which you will see with the last section however I will be adding that in shortly. For now though, I would like to hear your thoughts on this proposal. Resolve Resolve is a special character trait that represents a character’s defense against mental and spiritual attacks and damage. Such attacks may be magical, non-magical or divine in nature. When on the opposite end of attempts at interrogation, intimidation, torture, persuasion or seduction, Resolve represents the ability to resist such such attempts. Knowledge of such skills as well ability in the art of meditation and endurance can help build resolve and strengthen it. Resolve offers defense against magic such as Hypnotism, Leeching, Possession and against some gnosis such as Chaon. It offers protection against the possession attempts of ghosts. It also helps fend off the effects of Overgiving and determines how much personal djed one is able to access for the sake of using personal magic. Resolve is not magic resistance. It is the spiritual and mental strength of an individual and their ability to resist such damage. How Does Resolve Work Resolve is treated similarly to skills as far as dicing goes. When one’s resolve is challenged such as being interrogated or tortured, they would roll 1d100 and add their resolve against the character who is interrogating or torturing them who would be rolling 1d100 plus their skill points in interrogation or torture. The highest score wins. When being the target of magic such as Hypnotism, Leeching or Possession (ghosts), a character would first defend themselves with that same magic (in the case of Hypnotism or Leeching). One who is targeted with Hypnotism would defend with Hypnotism. 1d100 + Hypnotism skill points, highest wins; the same with Leeching. In the case of Possession by ghosts, Spiritism would be used. 1d100 + Possession skill points vs 1d100 + Spiritism; of course, Spiritism offers a few extra defensive measures based on skill level. Alternatively, if the target is not skilled in one of these disciplines or their resolve is higher than their skill level in one of these disciplines, they may substitute their resolve skill in place of their magic skill. 1d100 + Resolve vs 1d100 + magic skill points, highest wins. What is my Resolve Score Resolve is possessed by all living and non-living (undead) things. As mentioned, it acts like a skill and as such, it comes with its own points. Consider it like this: 1-25 (Weak Resolve) 26-50 (Moderate Resolve) 51-75 (Strong Resolve) 76 – 100 (Powerful Resolve) It is determined as follows: Mundane animals and children – 15 Starting Resolve Player Characters and NPCs – 26 Starting Resolve Increasing Resolve There are three methods of increasing one’s resolve. The First Method Acquire skills that either build one’s resolve and/or attack the resolve of another. These skills are: Interrogation (Knowing how to draw information from a person through mental manipulation, reading and employing body language and exerting one’s will in order to get the person to reveal information they otherwise wouldn’t, grants the character the ability to recognize how to prepare themselves against these same techniques. This results in a small boost to resolve.) Intimidation (Using one’s physical, emotional and/or mental presence to make one feel awkward, inferior and inept, allows the person to understand how to defend against such acts when they are used against them. This in turn results in a small boost to resolve.) Meditation (Focusing one’s thoughts, emotions and getting the body and mind on the same page, is the epitome of mental and spiritual resolve. Finding the right mental, spiritual and physical balance results in a boost to resolve.) Leadership, Persuasion or Seduction (either/or) (Being a good leader; able to inspire, direct and manage people and situations, using one’s own physical and intellectual gifts to get others to do what they want, employing sexuality to manipulate another, these are all traits that prepares a person to recognize and resist such things if necessary. As such, they offer a boost to resolve.) Endurance (Being able to withstand physical burdens and push one’s body beyond normal limits are skills that mean absolutely nothing without the mental fortitude to back them up. If the mind is not capable of pushing the body past its limits, then the body will fail. As a result, resolve receives a boost.) Torture (Knowing how to cut just the right way, squeeze the right spot, break the right bone or twist the right piece, grants a person the knowledge of how best to separate themselves from such pain. In turn, they gain a boost to resolve.) These 6 skills (Leadership, Persuasion and Seduction, for the sake of determining bonus to Resolve, are either/or) can increase one’s resolve by 1 point for each skill level (Novice, Competent, Expert, Master). They can stack for a total of 24 points. So, if a character has Novice Intimidation, Expert Persuasion and Novice Torture, they can add 5 points to their Moderate Resolve for a total of 31. Children cannot increase their Resolve to Competent through this method. The Second Method The link between the divine and their followers is a strong one. The deity creates a connection between them and their follower and shares a bit of their energy with that follower. While possessing a single gnosis mark is not enough to boost resolve, having two marks from a single deity is a significant enough of a connection that it increases one’s spiritual strength (Resolve). Having 2 marks from a single god or goddess immediately boosts the character’s resolve by one complete level of strength. If the character has a Moderate Resolve, it becomes Strong (51). If they had a Strong Resolve, it becomes Powerful (76). The bonuses from the beforementioned relevant skills then transfer to this next level. So, our example of a character with Moderate Resolve who has Novice Intimidation, Expert Persuasion and Novice Torture, gains 2 marks from a single god. They can now add those 5 points to their Strong Resolve for a total of 55. This increase in resolve only applies to a single instance of 2 marks from any one deity. Multiple single marks or even multiple duel marks, do not count. The Third Method When a character has been around and active for an especially long time, they tend to build up quite a bit of experience, skill and knowledge. They’ve seen a lot, done a lot and have grown in many ways. This is represented by having a higher resolve. This is determined by a character’s average post count. The average post count equals the character’s total post count divided in half. It is divided in order to adjust for out-of-character posts. An average post count of 1,500 will increase one’s resolve by one level of strength. If the character has a Moderate Resolve, it becomes Strong (51). If they had a Strong Resolve, it becomes Powerful (76). The bonuses from the beforementioned relevant skills then transfer to this next level. So, for example, a character with Strong Resolve who has Novice Intimidation, Expert Persuasion and Novice Torture, gains 2 marks from a single god and has a 1,500 average post count can now add those 5 points to their Powerful Resolve for a total of 81. If they did not have 2 marks from a single deity, they would instead increase their Moderate Resolve to Strong and add the five points for a total of 56. This can also translate to certain especially powerful NPCs. NPCs who possess a number of Master level skills, who are uniquely gifted such as Druvin or Divine Champions, may also be considered as having the equivalent of high average post count for the sake of determining higher resolve. Examples A starting character has a base of 26 in Resolve. They have Novice Leadership, Expert Endurance and Novice Meditation. For the two Novice skills, they add 1 point each to their Resolve. For the Expert skill, they add 3 points. This gives a total of 5 points added to the base Resolve of 26 for a total of 31. This character would have a Resolve of 31. If this same character had 2 Gnosis marks from a single Deity, their base Resolve would be 51. They would then add the 5 points from their relevant skills to this for a total Resolve of 56. If this same character instead had average Post Count of 1,500 (3,000 total post count), they would have a base Resolve of 51 with the 5 points added from the relevant skills for a total Resolve of 56. If this same character had both an average Post Count of 1,500 AND 2 marks from a single deity, their base Resolve would be 76. They would then add the 5 points from their relevant skills to get a total Resolve of 81. Basically, when your Resolve increases by a full level through average Post Count and/or having 2 Gnosis Marks, you take on that new base Resolve score and add in any relevant skill bonuses to find your final total. Resolve and Magic Use Resolve represents the mental and spiritual strength of a character which means that it also governs the personal djed that all living and un-living creatures possess. While one’s skill in a certain magical discipline grants them knowledge of its use, it does not determine their personal pool of djed from which their use of personal magic draws from; this is an unquantifiable concept that varies from person to person. There is no set pool of djed for any particular character. When one draws upon their personal djed to manipulate it into magic, it is taxing. If one draws upon too much personal djed, they risk overgiving. Resolve determines how resistant one is to overgiving from excessive magical use under taxing conditions. How much personal djed is used in a particular magical manipulation depends on the skill level that the character is using for that particular manipulation. If a character is creating effects with personal magic that would otherwise be beyond their normal magical routine; practices that go beyond their comfort level and experience, then they need to worry about overgiving. Resolve and Overgiving Overgiving is the disruptive consequence of casting too much personal magic, overexerting the wizard's body, mind and soul. It brings a host of negative effects that are related the disciplines the mage practices but include physical, mental and spiritual damage. While milder cases can be recovered from with rest and medical care, the more severe forms can be irreversible and affect one's form, identity, soul, and mental state in minor or major ways. In the worst scenario, the subject might not be unrecognizable afterwards. Resolve, along with its other uses, represents one’s ability to resist the effects of overgiving. Overgiving results primarily from casting personal magic while engaged in stressful activities or under stressful conditions. These can include combat, fear, anger, sadness and any number of extreme emotional states that could cause stress. How Resolve, Magic Use and Overgiving Works Use of personal magic is best equated to breathing. Everyone breaths. It’s the normal. You can’t live without breathing. We breathe in our day to day lives just as characters use their djed in their day to day lives, many times without knowing it. They don’t overgive without the conscious use of magic because their djed use is normal for them, as normal as breathing. However, when we get into stressful things like combat, conflict, anxiety, desperation, high emotions, high adrenaline etc, our breathing becomes rapid. We start worrying or say we have an accident where we fall and get the breath knocked out of us, we have issues and can’t breathe well or struggle. Magic is a lot like this with comparable feelings and effects. Characters can use magic all day long so long as they are used to using it in specific natural normal ways. It’s when they are skirting new territory like stretching their powers or exploring new avenues of uses that they have to worry about overgiving. This is different for EVERY character. How they have developed over time, how they deal with things like stress, conflict, anxiety, etc., will help shape how they approach their use of magic and how it affects them in terms of potential overgiving risks. So, think about your character, what do they fear, what stresses them out, are they a natural in combat (hint, novices are not naturals, even competent characters are not naturals in combat), do they have existing mental issues, are they easily angered or are they calm and collected in social situations? All of these can make overgiving more or less of a threat under different circumstances. Novices Novices in the use of various personal magical disciplines need worry little about overgiving as their skill and knowledge level prevents them from being able to do too much in the way of pushing themselves. It simply takes too much time and concentration to produce the simplest of effects as a Novice. Magic use in combat as a Novice is virtually impossible due to the time and focus involved. The magic user would likely be killed before being able to produce the smallest manipulation of djed. It is not until one becomes Competent in a magical discipline that they really need to begin worrying about overgiving. It is the Sweet Whispers, the lure of magic use that pushes a person to use more djed than they are capable of that comes into play here. The more competent one is in the manipulation of djed, the more they think they can do and the stronger they think they are. This is a mistake. When not faced with a stressful situation like combat or other mental or emotional stresses, a competent magic user need not worry about overgiving. As soon as they encounter combat or equivalent stress or are out of their element as far as going against what they are comfortable with as far as the use of their magic, they risk overgiving. Competent When a character, competent in a discipline of personal magic, attempts to manipulate djed in combat and/or under stressful circumstances outside of their normal magical routine or beyond their comfort level/ready knowledge of magic use, they roll 1d100 + Resolve against target of 75. This means they must get a total of 75 or greater to withstand the onset of overgiving. If they succeed, they do not suffer from overgiving. If they fail, they suffer from mild overgiving effects and roll on the overgiving effects chart to see what happens. With each casting of personal magic after, again in combat and/or under stressful circumstances outside of their normal magical routine or beyond their comfort level of magic use, the danger of overgiving increases. The second time one attempts to cast under the before mentioned conditions, it requires another resolve roll. This time it is against a difficulty of 100 meaning their 1d100 + Resolve roll total must be 100 or greater. If they succeed, they do not suffer from overgiving. If they fail, they suffer from another minor overgiving effect and roll on the overgiving effects chart to see what happens. If the person continues to cast personal magic again, they roll another 1d100 + Resolve with a difficulty of 125. This means they need a total of 125 or greater to resist overgiving. If they succeed, they do not overgive. If they fail, they suffer from medium overgiving effects and roll on the overgiving effects chart to see what happens. If, for some crazy reason, the person continues to press their luck in casting personal magic for a forth time during combat or under stressful conditions, they must roll 1d100 + Resolve against a difficulty of 150. If they succeed by rolling a total of 150 or greater, they do not suffer from overgiving. If they fail, they they suffer from a severe overgiving effect and roll on the overgiving effects chart to see what happens. After that, on the fifth time and every time after that one chooses to cast their personal magic, under the beforementioned conditions, they must roll a 1d100 + Resolve against a difficulty of 175. If they succeed by rolling a total of 150 or greater, they resist overgiving, if they fail, it is not pretty. Failure on any of these resolve rolls results in additional severe effects and can lead to death. If in any case of overgiving, if the person has already suffered from the rolled effect, they must take the next one in line. While magic use can be extraordinarily powerful, it brings with it equally extraordinary risks. As you can see, pushing one’s self too far with manipulating personal djed and/or going outside of one’s routine and comfort zone in regards to magic use, can be extremely dangerous. Expert As detailed previously, we see what happens when one who is competent in a magical discipline pushes themselves too far in casting personal magic outside their normal routine and/or in combat or under stressful conditions. However, what happens to those who are Experts or even Masters under the same conditions. As one becomes more skilled in the use of personal magic, they are able to approach it in a way that feels more natural. With greater knowledge of the magic and the use of personal djed, the ability to get better use out of ones resolve in resisting overgiving becomes greater. Experts in a particular magical discipline find that their ability to manipulate their personal djed is more instinctual; it tends to come more naturally. As a result, their difficulty to resist overgiving is less. This means that their Resolve goes further than it would for one who is simply competent with the djed use. However, because the Expert is manipulating more focused djed, if they do succumb to overgiving, the effects are more severe. When a character, an expert in a discipline of personal magic, attempts to manipulate djed in combat and/or under stressful circumstances outside of their normal magical routine or beyond their comfort level/ready knowledge of magic use, they roll 1d100 + Resolve against a difficulty of 65. This means they must get at least a total of 65 or higher to withstand the onset of overgiving. If they succeed, they do not suffer from overgiving. If they fail, they suffer from mild overgiving effects and roll on the overgiving effects chart to see what happens. With each casting of personal magic after, again in combat and/or under stressful circumstances outside of their normal magical routine or beyond their comfort level of magic use, the danger of overgiving increases. So, if the person succeeds in resisting overgiving after their first attempt, the second attempt requires another resolve roll. This time it is against a difficulty of 90 meaning their 1d100 + Resolve roll total must be 90 or greater. If they succeed, they do not suffer from overgiving. If they fail, they suffer from a medium overgiving effect and roll on the overgiving effects chart to see what happens. If the person succeeds in their second attempt to resist overgiving and continues to cast personal magic again, they roll another 1d100 + Resolve with a difficulty of 115. This means they need a total of 115 or greater to resist overgiving. If they succeed, they do not overgive. If they fail, they suffer from severe overgiving effects and roll on the overgiving effects chart to see what happens. If, for some crazy reason, the person continues to press their luck in casting personal magic for a forth time during combat or under stressful conditions, they must roll 1d100 + Resolve against a difficulty of 135. If they succeed by rolling a total of 135 or greater, they do not suffer from overgiving. If they fail, they they suffer from an additional severe overgiving effect and roll on the overgiving effects chart to see what happens; which can include death. After that, on the fifth time and every time after that one chooses to cast their personal magic, they must roll a 1d100 + Resolve against a difficulty of 160. If they succeed by rolling a total of 160 or greater, they resist overgiving, if they fail, it is not pretty. Failure on any of these resolve rolls results in death or worse. If in any case of overgiving, if the person has already suffered from the rolled effect, they must take the next one in line except for the fifth time and beyond if applicable. Master Masters in a particular magical discipline find that their ability to manipulate their personal djed is almost a way of life; it tends to come quite easy. As a result, it is much more difficult for them to overgive than it is for those of lesser skill. However, because the Master is manipulating far more focused djed, if they do succumb to overgiving, the effects are nothing short of horrific. When a character, a master in a discipline of personal magic, attempts to manipulate djed in combat and/or under stressful circumstances outside of their normal magical routine or beyond their comfort level/ready knowledge of magic use, they roll 1d100 + Resolve against a difficulty of 50. This means they must get at least a total of 50 or higher to withstand the onset of overgiving. If they succeed, they do not suffer from overgiving. If they fail, they suffer from medium overgiving effects and roll on the overgiving effects chart to see what happens. With each casting of personal magic after, again in combat and/or under stressful circumstances outside of their normal magical routine or beyond their comfort level of magic use, the danger of overgiving increases. The second attempt requires another resolve roll. This time it is against a difficulty of 75 meaning their 1d100 + Resolve roll total must be 75 or greater. If they succeed, they do not suffer from overgiving. If they fail, they suffer from severe overgiving effects and roll on the overgiving effects chart to see what happens. If they continue to cast personal magic a third time under the before mentioned conditions, they roll another 1d100 + Resolve with a difficulty of 100. This means they need a total of 100 or greater to resist overgiving. If they succeed, they do not overgive. If they fail, they suffer from another severe overgiving effects and roll on the overgiving effects chart to see what happens. If, for some crazy reason, the person continues to press their luck in casting personal magic for a fourth time during combat or under stressful conditions, they must roll 1d100 + Resolve against a difficulty of 125. If they succeed by rolling a total of 125 or greater, they do not suffer from overgiving. Failure means death or worse. If in any case of overgiving, if the person has already suffered from the rolled effect, they must take the next one in line except for the fifth time and beyond if applicable. Important Notes on Overgiving Just because someone is skilled in one magical discipline does not mean that they are able to resist the effects of overgiving in the same way when using a different discipline. For example, an Expert in Reimancy who is Competent in Morphing would resist Overgiving in two separate ways. When using Reimancy, they would approach Overgiving as an Expert Reimancer. When using Morphing, they would approach Overgiving as a Competent Morpher. If a character has a proven track record of practicing, training and making a routine of, using magic in combat-related situations (numerous related Lores and threads tied to such a thing) they may find that the affects of overgiving are reduced. In this case, the severity of overgiving may be reduced by one level (minimum of minor overgiving). For example, if an Expert Reimancer fails their second overgiving roll, they would normally suffer from moderate overgiving. If that character had a track record of developing their magic use in combat-related situations, they would instead only suffer from mild overgiving. Overgiving Effect Charts Auristics Overgiving in Auristics is almost never deadly, but it carries its own risks with most of the negative effects focused on the senses. Minor Overgiving These effects are temporary, normally lasting a few days at most but may be cumulative. 1D8 1 - Heavy Fatigue 2 - Dilated pupils (uncomfortable light sensitivity) 3 - Incoherent speech 4 - Temporary Loss of Sight 5 - Temporary Loss of Hearing 6 - Temporary Loss of Taste 7 - Temporary Loss of Touch 8 - Temporary Loss of Smell Moderate Overgiving Moderate overgiving with Auristics almost always involves long-term hallucinations that affect varying senses. The wizard may experience not just visual hallucinations but also ones that affect their hearing, touch, taste and smell. These hallucinations may be cumulative and typically last at least a season, sometimes more. 1D5 1 - Sight Hallucinations 2 - Sound Hallucinations 3 - Touch Hallucinations 4 - Taste Hallucinations 5 - Scent Hallucinations Severe Overgiving Severe overgiving is permanent and its effects, while also permanent, occur randomly and without control. The more one succumbs to severe overgiving, the more often their powers will awaken without their control and the more senses they consume with greater severity. With severe overgiving, the wizard will find themselves unable to tell what is real and what isn’t; quickly developing phobias, extreme paranoia and the inability to separate hallucination from reality. There is no cure or remedy for severe overgiving. Familiary From a technical standpoint, overgiving is possible with Familiary, but rare. No activities really cause enough Djed transmutation to give heavy overgiving, except maintaining the joint Released form. Overgiving in this case tends to lead to generic physical and psychic trauma, with the occasional strange side effect, such as wizard and Familiar switching bodies or parts thereof. Minor Overgiving Minor overgiving due to the Joint Released Form can lead to temporary physical wounds that can be healed through normal means. 1D5 1 – Bruising and abrasions (minor wound) 2 – Small cuts erupt over the wizard’s body (minor wound) 3 – A broken finger (minor wound) 4 – A broken toe (minor wound) 5 – Missing tooth (minor wound) Moderate Overgiving Moderate overgiving due to the Joint Released Form can lead to mental trauma that can last up to a season or more and can lead to more severe physical trauma such as switching body parts or even bodies with the familiar for up to a season. 1D4 1 – Nightmares every time the wizard sleeps; moderate severity 2 – Hearing incoherent whispers with no discernable source 3 – The wizard takes on a physical feature of the familiar and vice versa 4 – The wizard and the familiar switch bodies with extreme difficulty in controlling physical movements and functions. Severe Overgiving Severe overgiving due to the Joint Released Form can cause permanent switching of body parts or even permanent switching of bodies altogether between the wizard and the familiar. 1D4 1 – Wizard and Familiar switch arms (both arms, proportionate to the rest of the body) 2 – Wizard and Familiar switch legs (both legs, proportionate to the rest of the body) 3 – Wizard and Familiar switch faces and head structure (proportionate to the rest of the body) 4 – Wizard and Familiar switch bodies; their control over the new body is clumsy and all physical tasks and skills function at half their normal capacity. Flux The Flux, like all personal magic, can result in overgiving, which in this case is as subtle as it is nasty. Physical consequences are not felt until very late; instead, the user experiences a feeling of being invincible and a higher pain threshold as well as violent, destructive instincts sometimes unable to tell friend from foe. Because of this, many users are incapacitated or killed before the actual damage kicks in. When this happens, it takes away the very thing the Flux user prizes most: his body. The telltale sign is a painful, electric-like spasm coursing through the limbs at random. These lumps of uncontrollable energy travel all over the body, dealing damage from the inside whenever they burst or spike. The wizard is torn apart by his own life force, which breaks flesh and bone alike. Limbs pop out of their joints, at times even the eyes are ejected from their sockets. Sometimes a master of Flux witnessing the scene can help redirect the insane Djed storm and limit the damage taken by another. Usually, though, consequences of heavy overgiving are devastating when not lethal and will give headaches even to master-level healers. Minor Overgiving Minor overgiving effects feel to the wizard to be beneficial and last a day or two at most. These feelings are deceptive however as they tend to lead the wizard to push themselves even further than they should. These effects are cumulative. 1D3 1 – High pain threshold (moderate wounds feel like they are minor although they are still moderate) 2 – Feeling of invincibility (ignore the pain from a single critical wound; the wound is still critical but feels like it’s nothing more than a scratch.) 3 – Friends appear as foes; a feeling beyond the wizard’s control (in effect whenever engaged in combat). Moderate Overgiving Moderate overgiving effects are immediate and often extremely painful. Some can be healed through normal means while others are so extreme that they are permanent. 1 – Painful spasms that randomly course through the arms; torn muscles (moderate wound). 2 – Painful spasms that randomly course through the legs; torn muscles (moderate wound). 3 – Severe headaches 4 – Painful spasms that randomly course through the torso; torn muscles (moderate wound). 5 – Dislocated shoulder (moderate wound) 6 – Dislocated hip (moderate wound) 7 – Skin rips open in random places (moderate wound) 8 – Broken arm (severe wound) 9 – Broken leg (severe wound) 10 – Eye popped out of socket (severe wound) Severe Overgiving Severe overgiving effects are immediate and devastating; potentially fatal. Healing such wounds usually requires multiple-marked healers to be even moderately effective. 1 – Arm bone explodes; may require amputation (critical wound) 2 – Leg bone explodes; may require amputation (critical wound) 3 – Rib cage shatters (critical wound) 4 – Huge wounds rip open all over the body; profuse bleeding (critical wound) 5 – Both eyes pop out of sockets (blindness) (critical wound) 6 – Both ears burst (deafness) (critical wound) More Coming Soon!

[Savis Maren]

This is incredible! Your guys are so busy and I love the additions to the game you're implementing. While I'm not 100% sure on how it all works just yet (takes a few reads to do so) it does deserve a question right away.

Is Resolve noted in our CS's like a skill? How is that going to work as a quantified element?

[Asterope]

This looks fantastic, Gillar! Resolve is definitely going to be very handy for magic; I really like how you made it so that while still having concrete numbers, it wasn't turned into a new skill. The details on overgiving are super helpful too; I just had one question, and I'm hoping that this wasn't addressed and I accidentally missed it. If so, apologies!

Is there a sort of recovery period for the overgiving rolls? As in, the number you need to beat increases as you push your limits throughout one thread/situation, but resets to the first number in your next thread or after x amount of days? Or does the number to beat continue to increase permanently as you step into overgiving territory?

[Kynier]

This looks fantastic! It is great that you were able to formulate a very clear system for something that has been very vague with a lot of "open to interpretation" situations. I would love to assist in Playtesting this system.

Is there a sort of recovery period for the overgiving rolls?

I'm goint to guess that that is going to be addressed in the Overgiving Effects Chart when it is released.

[Gillar]

Two great questions!

So for the first, keep in mind that this is a rough draft and I am just looking for comments, suggestions and overall discussion on how to get this to work the best. When it comes time that it gets a final implementation, I will add in how it should be addressed in your CS.

For the second, with recovery time, I had considered that but honestly missed it in the initial posting of the draft. My thoughts were that when it comes to the progression of Overgiving, it is mainly associated with a single scene. By that I mean a single encounter and the various magical actions performed within that single encounter. For example, you get in a fight with someone and decide to throw down some magic. During the course of that fight as well as the bit of time leading up to it and the bit of time after, that is when the progression of overgiving is the greatest risk. Since overgiving effects are cumulative, several moderate effects can really screw with a character.

As for recovery, it would depend on the level of overgiving. So if you are suffering from minor overgiving, a day may be needed to recover with rest, sleep and just a bit of down time to refocus and restore your mental, emotional, spiritual or physical strength.

Moderate overgiving could take up to half a season or so, depending on what it is. That will be detailed more in the overgiving effects section.

Severe overgiving is permanent with no current way to recover. Since these permanent effects can be cumulative, it can be devastating to a character. This involves severe and often debilitating physical, mental and spiritual mutations as well as possible death, crippling and torturous undeath/ghosthood as well as other extremely unpleasant outcomes. All to be avoided.

[Mauriel]

I love this guide so far! It's great that there's a way for non-mages to assess their ability to resist magic in an objective/quantifiable way.

One point that I think might have been left unclear is whether the effect of the Third Way to add to your Resolve is cumulative or not. So, for example, if somebody has an average of 3.000 posts, would they then add two levels, or like with the Gnosis it doesn't stack?

Thank you so much for working on this, I haven't yet been in such combat situations, but I imagine it's gonna make a lot of player's lives much easier when it comes to magic use in combat and overgiving in general.

[Gillar]

With Average Post Count, a character would only benefit a single time upon gaining a 1,500 average count. Once the 1,500 AVP is attained, the level increase to Resolve is figured in at that time. A 3,000 AVP would not have any added effect to Resolve. That said, a 3,000 AVP is equal to 6,000 total posts. A character with that many posts is already going to be unimaginable and will likely already have achieved the 2 Gnosis Mark Resolve Boost in addition to the Skill Boost. Combined with the 1,500 AVP, that character would have a maxed out 100 Resolve.