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The Path and the Way: Using The System, Copyright Held by Eric Kienitz
Confidence – This rating measures how confident a character is in their belief on how
reality operates. There is both a permanent Confidence dot rating and a temporary
Confidence dot rating. The temporary Confidence rating cannot exceed the
permanent Confidence rating. The temporary Confidence rating measures how
confident a character is as opposed to how confident a character can be. The more
confident a character is the easier it is for them to utilize the powers of Paths and
Ways. Confidence is a latent, passive rating that is neither rolled nor used up but
can be destroyed by events or grown with experience. Generally speaking, a
character can only be stopped from utilizing an active power by someone who’s
Confidence is equal too or higher than the character’s, as described in the sections
under the heading of Confidence And Skewing Power Manifestation.
Confidence And Skewing Power Manifestation – Confidence effects how
powers are manifested during normal circumstances and Willpower
Combat. When a character succeeds on a power activation roll their power
can manifest skewed, especially if their target is another Path and Way
character that they have engaged in Willpower Combat. The sections
Confidence And Those With Will, Confidence And The Completely
Ignorant, and Confidence And The Use of Powers Around P & W
People give special rules for when a character is attacking or is just
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around others. Note that the GM always chooses in what way a power will
be skewed. This is because the way in which a power will be skewed is
very dependant upon the circumstances surrounding the activation of the
power (the environment, number of opponents, type of power, the user of
that power, bystanders, etc.). GMs take note, this is not a backfire or
failure of the power, it is only an alteration of the power. The power has
deviated from its intended form. If a power is meant to create a bright light
source around a character and it becomes altered, the light might come out
blue, or ultra-violet, or completely off the visible spectrum (not enough to
irradiate anyone, though). If a power is meant to lift and toss a rock maybe
the rock is tossed in the wrong direction (still away from the user) or is
lifted 30 feet in the air and dropped, or maybe it only goes half as far as it
should have. The GM, before they start their campaign, must make an
important decision: Just how altered does altered mean? On a 10-sided die,
the kind of die this game assumes you are using, 1 through 5 is one half of
the 50% and 6 through 10 is the other half of 50%. GMs have the option to
use a sliding scale of severity when it comes to a skew. For example, a 1
could mean that the tossed rock is going directly into the dirt beneath it. A
3 could mean it goes in the wrong direction. A 5 could mean the rock gets
lifted properly and goes in the right direction but it only gets half way to
its target. At 6 and above (7, 8, 9, and 10) the rock does exactly what it
was supposed to do. Remember that 0 represents a 10 on a 10-sided die. In
this way a GM has some help in determining what a proper alteration to a
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power should be. Or a GM could simply assume that if the chance roll
comes up against the user the power being used will do anything but effect
the target. Or the GM could make another 50% chance roll after the first to
determine whether or not the power will still effect the target. Or the GM
could come up with their own method. The first option (each skew is
completely determined by the GM on an individual basis, with the aid of a
sliding 1 through 10 scale) is the option that is assumed in this manual as
it gives the most opportunity for role-playing. One last thing to take note
of, when an active power’s difficulty is being raised in the manner
described in the Presence Pressure subsections below this heading, the
power effected can be a Way or Path power – if it is a Path power then
Presence Pressure is based on a character’s Path dots, if it is a Way power
being used then Presence Pressure is based on a character’s Way dot
rating. An active power is, generally speaking, a power that is activated by
a roll.
Confidence And Using Active Powers Around P & W People – This
section deals with the use of active powers around others who
have, at least, a Path. Only Path and Way users need ever be
engaged in Willpower Combat.
Power Skews – When a character is in the presence of others who
share a different Path or Way than they, only one of those
other persons has to have a higher temporary Confidence
rating to create a 50% chance that any active power the
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character uses will be skewed. In other words, if a character
is merely around 1 other P & W character with a different
set of beliefs (which probably means different Paths and
Ways) and who has a higher temporary Confidence rating,
any active power the character uses can be altered. This
rule applies in both friendly and combat situations with
other P & W characters. Remember: only the presence of
these other characters is required. As an example, a
character wants to use a power on a building. This
character is around a friend who has at least a Path. The
character has a temporary Confidence rating of 6 and the
friend has a temporary Confidence rating of 7. The
character’s power now has a 50% chance of being skewed
simply by their friend’s presence. When one character is
around non-hostile P & W characters who have the same
temporary Confidence rating as that one character, that
character’s powers will always work normally as described
by their section. To continue from the example above, if the
character and the friend both have a temporary Confidence
rating of 6 the character can use their power exactly as
though the friend weren’t there. When a character is using
an active power directly on a hostile opponent who has at
least a Path (in other words during Willpower Combat) and
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both of their temporary Confidence ratings are equal, that
attacking character’s power has a 50% chance of
manifesting skewed. To continue using the same example,
the character decides to use their power on the friend
instead of the building. The character succeeds in activating
their power. The character and the friend both still have
temporary Confidence ratings of 6. Because the friend is
now hostile towards the character the power activated has a
50% chance of going off improperly. Finally, if a character
is using an active power on a group only 1 person in that
group needs to have a higher temporary Confidence rating
to skew a power (if friendly). If the group is hostile to the
character using a power, only 1 person has to have a
temporary Confidence rating equal to the character’s to
cause a skew.
Presence Pressure – When a character is around 2 others (who at
least have a Path) for every dot the character has in a Path
or Way associated with any active power being used, the
difficulty of utilizing the power is raised by 1 – and these
other characters do not have to have a higher Confidence
rating than the character to effect them in this way. As an
example, a character intends to use a Way ritual. The
character has 3 dots in the Way associated with the ritual.
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The character is around 2 people (who at least have Paths)
for every one of their Way dots, for a total of 6 people
around the character (3 Way dots multiplied by 2 is 6). If
the difficulty of the Way ritual was 7 it is now 8. If the
character had 4 dots in their Way 8 people would have to
be around them to raise the difficulty by 1. Every 2 people
past the amount necessary to raise the difficulty by 1 raises
the difficulty by 1 again. For example, if a character is
using a power from a Way they have 5 dots in and they are
around 10 people the difficulty will go up by 1 (if it was 6
it is now 7). If that same character finds that they are
around 12 people while trying to use their Way they have 5
dots in, the difficulty again rises by 1 – 10 to raise it by 1, 2
more past 10 to raise it again. If the character is around 14
people who have at least a Path the difficulty goes up by
another 1. At 14 people the total difficulty has gone up by 3
(if the difficulty were 6 it would now be 9). Once the first
threshold is reached every 2 additional presences with a
Path (each of whom does not believe as the character does)
raises the difficulty by 1 again. This is because a person of
a particular Path or Way is, in addition to always
subconsciously bending reality around himself or herself to
better fit their point of view, certain that only their beliefs
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are correct and therefore anyone using another belief
system is incapable of succeeding (even if this certainty is
subconscious). Thus Path and Way characters, especially
Way characters, tend to stick to groups of like-minded
people who believe as they believe. Please note that the
difficulty to use an active power will not go above 10.
Confidence And Those With Will – This section deals with characters
that know their will can effect changes to reality but who do not
have a Way or a Path. Ritual magicians (such as those who use
Kabalistic rituals), Wicca’s, witches, and actual (Pathless) psychics
are the kinds of people who fall into this category. Note that these
opponents do not have to be fought using Willpower Combat. To
use a power on this type of person a character need only activate
their power as described by their power’s section.
Power Skews – Unlike another Path and Way enabled person, a
character who does not have at least a Path cannot effect
another character by their mere presence. The only time a
power is ever skewed by this type of person is when they
are directly attacked by an active power. And, also unlike
an opponent with a Path, these people must first know that a
power is being used on them. For example, if a character
successfully uses a power on a person who knows their
power of will, but has no Way or Path, and that person
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doesn’t know a power is being used on them, the power
will not be skewed. If a person (or target) upon whom a
power is being used does know, the power will be skewed
according to that person’s temporary Confidence rating. If
a target has a higher temporary Confidence rating than an
attacking character then the power has a 50% chance of
being skewed in a fashion determined by the GM. If the
target has an equal or lower temporary Confidence rating
the power is not skewed and goes off as normal. For
example, a character is using an active power on a person
who has the power of will but no Path. The character has a
temporary Confidence rating of 5. The targeted person has
a temporary Confidence rating of 6. The power now has a
50% chance of being altered because the target’s temporary
Confidence is higher than the attacking character’s
temporary Confidence. To examine another scenario, again
a character is using a power on a person who only knows
about Willpower. This time the character and the person
being attacked both have temporary Confidence ratings of 6
(they both have the same rating). In this instance the
attacking character’s power activates as it normally should
because the targeted person doesn’t have the temporary
Confidence to cause an alteration. To put it simply,
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someone with no Way and no Path, but who does know
their Willpower can effect reality, can skew a character’s
active power if their temporary Confidence rating is higher
than the user of the power – if they know the power is
being used, and if the power is being used on them. If a
character is using an active power on a group of people
who fall under this section half of them (50%) must have a
temporary Confidence rating that is higher than the
character’s to skew a power.
Presence Pressure – The mere presence of those who know their
power of will over reality can increase a character’s
difficulty to use their active powers. None of the people
who effect a character in this way have to have a higher
temporary Confidence rating, nor do they need to know a
character is using an active power, nor do they have to be
hostile. They do, however, have to have a different set of
beliefs than the character. Since this section deals with
people who have knowledge of will but no Ways or Paths it
is almost guaranteed that they will have a different set of
beliefs. To increase a character’s difficulty to use their
power there must be 3 will-knowledgeable people for every
dot the character has in the Path or Way associated with the
power the character intends to use. If this prerequisite is
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met the difficulty rises by 1. For example, a character
trying to use a Way ritual has a 2 dot Way rating for the
Way the ritual is listed under. The difficulty to use the
ritual is 5. If there are 6 will-knowledgeable people around
the character using the ritual the difficulty goes up by 1,
making it 6 (five plus one equals six). If a character using a
Way has 3 dots for their Way then 9 people must be around
them to increase the difficulty by 1. If 12 willknowledgeable people are around a character with 4 dots in
a Way the character is using a power from the difficulty
goes up by 1. The presence of every 3 opponents past the
amount necessary to first raise the difficulty by 1 increases
the difficulty by 1 again. For example, when a character is
using a power from a Way they have a rating of 5 in, and
the character is around those who know of the power of
will (but who have no Ways or Paths), the difficulty will go
up by 1 if there are 15 people around the character – all of
whom have different beliefs about reality. If 3 more people
show up when the character is using the power they have 5
dots for, making a total of 18 people, the difficulty goes up
again by 1. So if the difficulty were 4 it would now be 6. If
another 3 people arrive to make a total of 21 people the
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difficulty goes up by another 1, creating a difficulty of 7.
The difficulty cannot go above 10.
Confidence And The Completely Ignorant – Most of the people a
character is going to encounter have never heard of a Way, know
nothing of Paths, and think the idea that Willower can change
reality is a new age fad. To Way and Path users alike these people
are known as the Ignorant. These people never have to be engaged
in Willpower Combat. To use an active power on a normal person
a character only has to roll their power as they would if the person
were an inanimate object. It is very unlikely that any belief system
a normal person holds will match a Way or Path character’s. Now
is a good time to make one thing clear: almost everybody has a
belief system. A belief system can be a particular philosophy, a
religion, science, or anything else a GM thinks is qualified.
Power Skews – The presence of someone who does not even
know the power of their Willpower can never alter an
active power. However, if a normal person realizes that a
character is about to do something to them their
subconscious will try to stop what is happening. If a normal
person has a temporary Confidence rating 3 or more dots
higher than a character using a power on that person, the
power will have a 50% chance of manifesting skewed. For
example, a character is using a Way power on a normal
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person – one who knows something is about to happen to
them. The character’s temporary Confidence rating is 5.
The normal person’s temporary Confidence rating is 8
(maybe they are a Buddhist, though a corporate lawyer is
probably pretty sure about their reality too). Because the
normal person’s 8 is 3 dots higher than the character’s 5,
the power the character is using now has a 50% chance of
being skewed. When a character is using a power on a
group of the Ignorant every single person in that group
(100% of them) must have a temporary Confidence rating 2
dots or higher than the character’s to cause a skew.
Presence Pressure – When there are at least 10 completely normal
people for every dot a character has in the Path or Way
associated with an active power then the character’s
difficulty to activate their power is raised by 1. Every time
there are 10 people per dot past the initial amount necessary
to raise the difficulty by 1, the difficulty gets raised by 1
again. As an example, a character is using a Way ritual.
The character has 5 dots for the Way associated with the
ritual. The difficulty to use the Way power is 7. If there are
50 normal people around the character the difficulty goes
up 1 (raising it from 7 to 8). If another 50 people show up
(10 more per dot past the initial 10 per dot) the difficulty
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for the character to use their power is raised by another 1,
creating a difficulty of 9. So at 100 people the character’s
difficulty to use their power is raised by 2. At 150 people
the difficulty goes up 3, making it 10. At 200 people the
difficulty is still 10 because the difficulty cannot go above
10.
Confidence And Using The Paths And Ways – To use a Path or Way a
character must have at least five dots of permanent Confidence. This is
considered a normal amount of Confidence in one’s reality and is held by
most people who do not question the world around them. A character who
drops below five dots of Confidence is no longer able to use their Path and
Way powers, either passive or active, and is unable to learn a new Path or
Way. This is because the character no longer even has an average amount
of Confidence in himself or herself or reality. Regaining Confidence is
dealt with in the sections under the Being Confident heading. A character
that starts the game on a Path or Way must start with a permanent
Confidence of 5. A character who starts the game without a Path or Way
can start with any Confidence rating they wish – depending on points
available during the character creation process – but must have a
temporary and permanent Confidence of five or higher before they can
choose a Path or Way.
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Loosing Confidence – Permanent Confidence can be lost normally by
experiencing some sort of shattering event, trauma, or failure (like
brainwashing or failing to save your child). The GM will determine the
seriousness of the trauma required for loss according to an individual
character. To prevent loss of permanent Confidence due to a traumatic or
unusual situation a character may roll their favored personality trait
(Rational or Irrational) against a difficulty determined by the GM (who
bases the difficulty on the experience but makes it no lower than 6). This
is the character’s attempt to try and get a “handle” on what they’ve just
been through. Note that when a character is introduced to a set of
circumstances that contradicts or defies their own beliefs (such as a talking
ice cube) this falls under the category of trauma. If successful, the
character doesn’t loose any permanent Confidence. If a character fails this
roll they loose a dot of permanent Confidence. One may also deliberately
loose Confidence by tearing down their own belief system. First, a
character needs an example of why their old belief system is incorrect
(how good an example is up to the GM). The character then rolls their
temporary Willpower against a difficulty of 8 (it is not easy to convince
yourself you don’t know or feel what you do know and feel). The
character must get as many successes as they have permanent Confidence
points. Every totally successful roll drains a temporary point of
Confidence. It could be argued that this might make the task impossible
for characters that don’t have enough Willpower dice, but keep in mind
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that in reality sometimes some people don’t have the Willpower to do such
a difficult task. When a permanent dot of Confidence is lost a character
will have a full temporary Confidence rating at their new, lower,
Confidence level.
Loosing Temporary Confidence – If a character looses all temporary
Confidence this has no other immediate effect than to make them
incapable of utilizing any abilities, either active or passive. If a
week (seven days) goes by and the character cannot regain any
temporary Confidence they must roll their appropriate personality
rating (Rational or Irrational) against a difficulty of 5 to reaffirm
that yes, their believes are sound. If this roll is failed then a
permanent point of Confidence is lost.
Confidence And Failing To Use A Power – If a character fails their
activation roll in the presence of another person that character must
roll their Rational or Irrational rating (depending on their
personality) at a difficulty of 5 to prevent the loss of a temporary
Confidence dot. A character is trying to convince himself or
herself with this roll that they only failed because of those around
them. When a character fails an activation roll while alone or in the
presence of those who believe the same as the character, they
always loose a temporary point of Confidence. A character
automatically looses temporary Confidence in this situation
because there is no way for them to excuse their failure. When a
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character botches a roll (any roll) they always loose a permanent
point of Confidence – if the botch is immediately apparent.
Botching when putting back together the car won’t cause a
character to loose Confidence if they will only notice the mistake
later. On the other hand, if they put the engine in the trunk they
might have to roll. If a character has never used a certain power or
ability before, a botch or failure will never cause the loss of
Confidence (either permanent or temporary). This is because a
character does not usually expect themselves to be proficient at
something until they have succeeded at least once.
Being Confident – To increase a character’s Confidence rating first they must
have their temporary Confidence at its maximum. Next, a character must
have enough experience using the powers or attributes of their Paths or
Ways before being eligible to get another Confidence dot. After using
their powers enough times a character will have the experience (and
therefore the added confidence) necessary to raise their permanent
Confidence rating. If a character has only a Path with passive abilities they
can increase their permanent Confidence in the same way that a character
with less than 5 dots of Confidence can (by affirming their believe in their
Path, as described later in the On The Edge Between Zero And Five
Confidence section). When a character is utilizing a mentor their mentor
can help raise the character’s Confidence. To aid a character in this way a
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mentor must be present during the character’s use of their powers and
abilities. When a character has succeeded at using an ability or power
(such as using their Mind Path abilities to succeed better in social
situations) the mentor needs to make it clear to the character that it was the
character who made things happen. For example, a mentor could point out
how the character’s Mind Path allowed them to see the subtle signs of
voice and body language. Then the mentor could point out that the
character’s Path is not a separate part of their being, that it was the
character reaching beyond human normal to accomplish something most
others need years of training to do. If a GM thinks that a mentor has added
to an experience a character can gain more experience points than they
normally would. The amount of added experience depends on how well
the mentor aided the character – in the GMs opinion. The added amount of
experience can be anything, either 1 extra point or a 1000 extra points.
The primary thing a GM should keep in mind is that a mentor can only
help to build Confidence through role-playing. See the Mentors section
for further details. A character can, as a last resort, buy a dot of permanent
Confidence once every month of passive ability use (if their passive ability
only benefits social roles, for example, a player must go out and be social
every day). When a new dot of permanent Confidence is attained a
character’s temporary Confidence fills to the new limit.
Regaining Temporary Confidence – Temporary Confidence can be
regained by role-playing with a mentor (in a way determined by
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the GM, such as intensive study), by successfully using a power
that a character originally failed at activating, by using other
powers (including passive ones) successfully every day for a week,
by role-playing, or by rolling dice. If a character successfully uses
a power they originally failed at using, a dot of temporary
Confidence is regained automatically. Once a dot has been
regained this way a character cannot gain any more Confidence
through this method – unless they fail at using another power then
reuse it successfully. When a character has successfully used their
powers or abilities every day for seven days (a week), on the 8th
day, after sleeping, they automatically regain a dot of temporary
Confidence. This means that when they wake up after seven days
of successful Path or Way use a character will have another dot of
temporary Confidence. The last two options (role-playing and dice
rolling) are more for those characters who have no temporary
Confidence left. If these characters do not have access to a mentor
they may seek out some sort of supernatural event such as the use
of an active power by another. In this case a character may roll
their Rational or Irrational rating (whichever is appropriate) against
a difficulty of 5. The character, if successful, confirms that such
things are possible and that reality is not as the school system
taught them, and also reaffirms that they are not crazy. They then
gain a point of temporary Confidence. Or a character could role-
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play with other characters who have a high Confidence in what
they themselves believe, showing the character that one does not
always need proof to have Confidence in something (after all,
almost everyone believes the world is round, even those who have
not left their home town). Or the people a character role-plays with
can try to make him or her reconfirm that extraordinary things are
possible. Whenever a GM feels that a character is about to be
convinced (or re-convinced, as the case may be) that they can do
what they set out to do, the GM can have the character roll their
Rational or Irrational rating against a difficulty of 5. Only 1
success is required. If the character succeeds they regain a dot of
temporary Confidence. The role-playing method has a wide range
of options to raise temporary Confidence – basically any method
the GM feels is appropriate to their campaign (see the On The
Edge Between Zero And Five Confidence section for more ideas,
as most of these can be applied to gaining temporary Confidence
as well). GMs please note that role-playing to regain temporary
Confidence doesn’t necessarily require dice rolling. If a GM
chooses to forgo dice the role-playing aspect of regaining
temporary Confidence should take time, and a lot of it. Remember
that not every minute of time needs to be role-played. The GM and
players can simply decide how a conversation would have gone
and what actions might have been taken. The final, back up way
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for a character to regain temporary Confidence is to roll their
Rational or Irrational rating every day for a week (seven days)
against a difficulty of 11 minus their permanent Confidence.
Consequently, if a character has a permanent Confidence rating of
5 the difficulty of the rolls would be 6. If the character has 10 dots
of permanent Confidence the difficulty would be 1. A character
may make this roll only once per day. If they succeed every day
the character regains a dot of temporary Confidence on the 7th day.
On The Edge Between Zero And Five Confidence – A character
between a zero and five Confidence rating understands still what
Confidence felt like, or might feel like (at the very least they
realize it is desirable) and will seek naturally to increases their
permanent Confidence rating. Any means reasonable to the
character will be used – drugs, religion, science, or even popular
opinion. Roll the character’s Rational or Irrational thought rating,
based on what their personality type favors, at a difficulty of 7 to
see if the character integrates an aspect of a view of reality they
might find favorable (one person might find more in common with
Dianetics, another the Koran, another might find an experience
they had on drugs revelatory). This must be something the
character would consider solid knowledge about the universe at
large, including a Path or Way if they have been introduced to one.
Note that characters who do not have a Way or a Path can use
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these methods. Remember that their temporary Confidence must
be at its max limit. If the character already has a Path and/or Way
this knowledge should at least touch on them. For example, a
character thinks or feels a certain way about reality (their system of
belief). Let us assume that the character is into consciousness
expanding drugs. During the next time the character uses a
hallucinogen, such as LSD, they observe the behavior of those
around them. While observing these people the character tries to
find underlying patterns of behavior. When the character finds
these patterns they can roll their Rational or Irrational thought
rating (whichever they favor) against a difficulty of 7 to integrate
their observations of those around them. This character has just
made himself or herself feel more Confident by being absolutely
sure of what they know. Remember that the character’s
conclusions do not have to be accurate – the character only needs
to think they are right. GMs please feel free to raise or lower the
difficulty of this type of roll. Also, make a point of role-playing
these sorts of experiences with players. It shouldn’t be too easy to
become permanently more confident in beliefs. A character who
already has a Path or Way and has dropped below five permanent
Confidence dots is incapable of utilizing their abilities but can
regain their Confidence by studying or somehow acquiring
experiences that reconfirm their belief in their abilities. When the
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proper experience has been garnered the character will then roll
their Rational or Irrational rating against a difficulty of 6. This is
whenever the GM feels the Way or Path character has done or
come across something that will bolster their belief.
Zero Confidence – A Confidence of zero is dangerous to a character, especially
for one that does not a have a mentor or guide to build them up again. This
is because someone with a Confidence of zero requires outside
intervention or events to regain it. A character not already on a Path or
Way becomes completely incapable of acting in any way other than to
fulfill bodily needs or urges. Unless their Willpower has dropped to zero
as well, a character can still hold down a job and have some sort of
minimal life (assuming the trappings are already in place). If not, the
character may find himself or herself on the street very quickly since even
choosing where to go or what jobs to try for is nearly an impossible task.
The character will want to acquire money for food and shelter because
their body needs food and shelter, but most or all of this character’s
decisions must be made for them. They may have the will to carry a task
out, but they can no longer choose a task. The character will still wish to
pass the time in some minimally pleasing manner, such as watching TV.
But the character has now become a non-entity. They will not act to
maintain a social life. Others can easily convince the character to do
anything that would not put the character in jeopardy. The character will
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likely not even have a favorite show – they just know that stimulation is
better than the lack of it. They are now playing it safe, just passing the
time until they die a natural death. Keep in mind, when in the presence of
someone with Confidence and a minimal ability to persuade others the
character’s view on what is safe or good can be easily altered. The GM
sets the difficulty of persuading a zero Confidence character to do
anything. The GM bases this difficulty on what it is the character is being
persuaded of, and how dangerous it would be under the purview of instinct
(which is all a zero Confidence character really has). The difficulty is
always low, but the difficulty of convincing the character they like
something as mundane as beats where before they didn’t even like
vegetables at all is zero. A character like this is the perfect target for a cult
or organization.
Path and Way Enabled Characters With Zero Confidence – A
character who has had a Path or Way will not immediately fall into
the above state. They can still remember that they once knew
something, could do things that seemed extraordinary. For the first
two weeks the Path or Way character can roll their temporary
Willpower against a difficulty of their Rational or Irrational rating
(depending on which is the favored type for the character’s
personality) to stop the downfall and begin a recovery. These
aspects are no longer working for the character because they aren’t
really working at all; the character no longer even has confidence
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in their own mental functioning. The character must will their
mind to work again, to realize that they can make the correct
choices. The character must relearn that they do know how to do
something, something almost no one else knows how to. The
character gets to make this roll once a day and has to get at least
one success every day for a week straight to prevent the
degeneration of their mind. Only 1 success a day is necessary.
Each botch subtracts a success but has no other effect. If they
succeed for a whole week the process is held in stasis. The
character may still continue to roll, and if they do succeed every
day for another seven days they can regain a point of permanent
Confidence back. If they fail at any point, or choose not to roll, a
new seven-day period starts and they must gain a success every
day for seven days to continue to prevent their downfall. In other
words, every time a character fails after rolling successfully for a
seven-day period another two-week grace period starts. For
example, a character has just lost all of their permanent
Confidence. They have a temporary Willpower of 4. They have a
Rational personality type so their Rational rating is used to set the
difficulty. The character’s Rational rating is 8 so the difficulty of
the roll is 8. The character rolls and gets 1 success. If the character
succeeds every day for 7 days the degenerative process is
stabilized. The character decides to keep rolling for another 7 days.
25
Every day for the next 7 days the character successfully makes
their roll. At the end of the next seven-day period (basically after
rolling successfully every day for 14 days) the character regains a
dot of permanent and temporary Confidence. To continue
examining this scenario, let us say that the character failed on the
9th day of rolling. This means that they succeeded for seven days,
stopping their mental degeneration. But on the second day of
rolling for their next seven-day period the character has failed the
roll. As soon as the character fails a new two-week (or 14 day)
grace period starts. The day they failed their roll is now the 1st day
of the new 14-day period. To prevent their mental degeneration the
character must succeed at their roll every day for seven days. If
they do the degeneration is held in stasis and they can try to roll
successfully for another seven days to regain their Confidence.
When a 2-week grace period starts a character only has those 2
weeks until they succeed for 7 days straight. As a result, if a
character reaches the 7th day of the grace period they must succeed
every day thereafter. If a character only starts consistently
succeeding on their roll after the 9th day they might as well not
even try because they cannot get the required seven days of
successes (considering the circumstances one might find this an
ironic twist of fate). If a character has failed by the end of the twoweek grace period the memories of their powers and abilities
26
become dim and unreal. The character now looses all dots above
the first in all their Paths and Way permanently, even if the
character were to somehow miraculously return to five dots of
permanent Confidence or more. These lost Path and Way dots
must be gained again in the normal fashion for characters. A
character then gets another two-week grace period where they can
continue to roll to prevent their mental degeneration. This is done
exactly like it was done before – the only difference is that if a
character had 5 dots in a Path they will only come out of this with
1 (assuming they make it this time). If a character again fails and
another two-weeks go by they must start on their Paths and Ways
all over again, as though they had never been on them in the first
place. The character can no longer roll to save their mind and is
now lost just like every other zero Confidence character. The times
when they had a Path and/or Way might even be considered
hallucinations by the character now and they may begin to question
their own sanity.
Confidence And Old Beliefs – If a character had a deeply held belief
before being introduced to Paths and Ways (such as those beliefs
that might be held by an expert on theoretical physics or devout
Christian preacher) the character’s Confidence must drop to zero
before it can be rebuilt to a form which will accept the new reality
presented by a Path – in other words the character must completely
27
abandon their old system of belief. A GM can consider a
permanent Confidence rating of 8 or higher as deeply held belief, if
they wish. But keep in mind that confidence in reality and
confidence in the self can be two separate things. The Confidence
rating used by The Path And The Way refers more to a person’s
confidence in himself or herself (their abilities, their skills, their
powers, etc.). A person can feel totally inept and incapable but still
be sure that extraterrestrial intelligence (aliens) exists. This
stripping of Confidence differs from the methods used by the Path
Believers (as found under the Special Innate Talents And
Aptitudes section), who abandon belief in all the forms of reality
itself in favor of the Paths (such as abandoning the belief in a force
that binds things to massive objects, one often referred to as
gravity). Instead, this character is being taken to zero Confidence
for the purpose of removing old beliefs, not to instill a specific
belief system. See the section called Loosing Confidence for some
ideas on how to loose Confidence. Once a character’s Confidence
has been completely stripped they may then begin the process of
embarking upon a new belief system. A character can only avoid
this if they have an appropriate epiphany (which probably has to be
presented to them as they will unlikely seek out something that is
totally different from, or even completely contradicts, their old
way of thinking). The most important thing about an epiphany is
28
that it must be a fact, belief, or way of thinking presented to the
character that the character can accept as a universal truth (such as
realizing that theoretical physics really is just theory, it is
humanity’s collective will which moves the universe). The
epiphany must simultaneously tear down a character’s old system
of belief and present a new one. When a character has an epiphany
they roll their Rational or Irrational rating (whichever is
appropriate) against a difficulty starting at 5 plus their permanent
Confidence rating. The difficulty can exceed 10. This roll is done
to merge or replace their old system of belief with what they’ve
discovered. The character must roll as many successes as they have
permanent Confidence dots. If successful they will loose all
permanent dots of Confidence except 1 from the shock created by
such a profound change. If they fail they cannot try again until
another individual epiphany moment. To create an example, a
character has a Rational rating of 6 and a permanent Confidence
rating of 5. Because the difficulty is 5 plus their permanent
Confidence rating the difficulty of the character’s roll is now 10.
They character needs 5 successes. Assume that the character is
really lucky and gets the 5 successes required. The character has
now shaken up their old belief system to accept the new reality
presented by Paths and Ways. Also, the character now only has a
permanent Confidence rating of 1. If a character does not have
29
enough Rational or Irrational dice the character is not capable of
reasoning or intuiting the solution to this dilemma. To create a
different example, a character has a Rational rating of 6 and a
permanent Confidence rating of 7. No matter the difficulty (which
would be 12 anyway) the character cannot make the 7 successes
necessary, so their roll will always fail. A GM should force a
player who is attempting to do this to come up with a way for their
two systems presented to their character to merge, if at all possible.
For example, a devout Christian might attribute Spirit Path abilities
as a gift from God. A scientist might try to use psychology or
genetics to explain Mind Path powers. The more different a Path is
from a character’s old system, as determined by the GM and
player, the more explaining the player might have to do (with the
GM’s help if necessary).
Recovering From Zero Confidence – So how does a zero Confidence
character regain their Confidence rating? Well, it’s impossible to
do it alone. Only another being is capable of pulling the character
up out of their misery. When you are the GM and are trying to
come up with a way to save a zero Confidence character remember
that using a non-human entity to communicate with them may
cause further difficulties such as complete insanity (remember at
this point that characters who had a Path and/or Way no longer
believe in those experiences). To begin the healing process
30
someone must be with the character 24 hours a day for a month,
forcing the character to make at least one choice for themselves
every day for 30 days. These choices can range from what produce
to buy at the grocery store to where to park. Likely the character, if
they had money, would have been buying the exact same thing to
eat every day and that thing would have been very simple – such as
an easy open can of beans. The choices the character being healed
must make should be different from their normal routine (like
eating a sandwich instead of beans, or not eating out of a certain
trash can). Whenever possible, the person trying to help the
character should put the character in an environment where there
are no wrong choices (like allowing the character to choose
between a selection of their favorite movies). The healer, assistor,
helper, whatever a role-playing group wishes to call the person
assisting the character, must maintain a comforting demeanor at all
times no matter how frustrating the character can be. At the end of
the 30-day period the character rolls their Irrational or Rational
rating (whichever is appropriate to their personality) against a
difficulty of 10. Only 1 success is required and a botch is
impossible on the first roll. If the character succeeds they come
part way to making the realization that they are a worthy human
being, that they can make a choice for good or ill. The character
now gains a single dot of temporary Confidence. Every success
31
past the first gets the character another dot of temporary
Confidence. After another 30 days of assistance the character can
make their Rational or Irrational roll again at a difficulty reduced
by 1, giving a difficulty of 9. This time the character can botch
their roll. A Botch will cause the character to loose all of their
progress, returning them to the beginning. Like before, every
success past the first adds another dot of temporary Confidence. If
the character fails their roll they retain their previously gained
temporary Confidence and the healing process can continue, just
without a reduction in roll difficulty until another success is made
(at the end of the next month because no progress was made for
this month). As the character’s progress moves on, the helper must
give the character choices that are more and more difficult to
make, and the character must be guided through the process of
making a bad choice. At the end of every month of progress (in
other words after they succeeded on the last roll they made) the
difficulty goes down by 1 again. So at the end of the third month of
making progress the difficulty will be at 8. When the character has
10 temporary dots of Confidence they must leave their helper’s
side and spend a week (7 days) on their own. At the end of the
week the character can roll their Irrational or Rational rating
against a difficulty of 1 (the character must get a 2 or above). If
they succeed they get 1 dot of permanent Confidence. A botch (a
32
1) will cause the character to loose all of their temporary
Confidence and the process must start over. A traumatic event will
also cause the character to regress back to the beginning of their
progress. Note that the helper does not always have to be the same
person every day, but changing the person every day would likely
hinder the character’s progress (depending on the character and
according to the individual GM). At the very least someone must
always be assisting the character until he or she is ready to be on
his or her own. Finally, it is up to the GM and the player group to
decide how much of this process they will role-play as it can
become very tedious.
Confidence And Megalomania – A player can declare that their character
believes he or she is always right about their point of view. This
declaration can be very appropriate depending on the character (meaning a
GM could decide a non-player character might be doing this too). The
character must be played as though they believe they are always correct –
which may lead to arrogance or closed mindedness in a way determined
by the GM and player depending on the base personality of the character.
When this character successfully activates a power their power will always
work normally unless they have a lower Confidence rating than a direct
target or a direct target makes their automatic save with Willpower as
described in the Using Willpower To Automatically Stop An Attack
33
section. Circumstances that normally raise difficulty will not. Only the
difficulty raising circumstances (Presence Pressure) described in the
Confidence And The Use of Powers Around P & W People section of
the manual will still apply. Be careful though, this rule is for the player
who feels lucky or is just an arrogant ass. Every time this character would
loose a dot of temporary Confidence they loose a dot permanent
Confidence. Every time they would loose a dot of permanent Confidence
they loose 2 dots of permanent Confidence. This is due to how crushing
any failure is to this character. In fact, the GM is more than welcome to
come up with severe penalties whenever this character even remotely fails
at anything (like being called on a wrong fact during a conversation).
Willpower – This is how a character alters reality, forcing the shared universe to
conform to their view of the way things should be. A character will have both a
temporary and permanent Willpower rating. A character’s temporary Willpower
rating can rise above the character’s permanent Willpower rating under special
circumstances. A permanent Willpower rating of 3 is considered average (most
people are not going to put up a fight, even for what they believe). Someone with
this level of Willpower might dislike something the government is doing, for
example, but is unlikely to actually go out and do anything about it. A Willpower
of 1 is low. No matter how much this person thinks they are right they are
unlikely to actually ever do anything about it.
34
Gaining Permanent Willpower – Permanent Willpower can be increased when a
character has the experience necessary. Once the experience has been
acquired the character can increase their Willpower by successfully
completing an abnormally difficult task as defined by the GM. An
abnormally difficult task might be defined as a task that stretches the
character’s abilities to their limits or beyond. Or maybe it can be the
completion of a particularly difficult story line that had been a part of the
GM’s campaign. The GM is very free to be creative in this instance. When
permanent Willpower has been increased a character also receives a
temporary dot of Willpower.
Temporary Willpower – A character does not need a specific temporary
Willpower rating to utilize Path and Way abilities (except that it must be
greater than zero). Passive abilities that are always on, such as those found
on the Paths, can be used as long as the character has one temporary
Willpower dot. Temporary Willpower dots are expended whenever the
player exerts an active power, altering reality. Way rituals will list a
specific amount of temporary Willpower necessary to activate them. Some
Path abilities require the expenditure of temporary Willpower as well. A
character may use their final Willpower dot to enable the use of a power,
but once all temporary Willpower is lost a character is left drained and
incapable of performing any sort of tasks which require real effort (mental
or physical). A character will not even be able to use their passive
35
abilities. Characters bereft of temporary Willpower have 6 hours after
expending their final temporary Willpower dot to find shelter and rest.
After that point they will collapse. During those 6 hours the character will
only be able to move as fast as their normal walking pace and carrying out
conversations will be taxing to the character (they will show their
complete exhaustion). At the end of the six-hour period a character will
collapse where they stand and cannot awaken unless physically injured
while sleeping. If a character comes under attack while sleeping after
loosing all of their temporary Willpower they may roll their permanent
Willpower against a difficulty of 9 to awaken. Every success rolled will
give the character 15 minutes of time awake. So if a character gets 2
successes they have a half an hour (30minutes) to stay awake. If they get 4
successes they get an hour (60 minutes). This roll cannot be botched. At
the end of this period a character will collapse into a coma-like sleep from
which they will not awaken under any circumstances. After being forced
awake in such a manner a character can only awaken once again after they
have reacquired a temporary Willpower dot through rest.
Temporary Willpower And The Automatic Success – Temporary
Willpower can also be used to ensure an automatic success when
performing an action that requires a roll to perform. Player
characters and non-player characters can utilize only one automatic
success per roll. A character should never be allowed two
automatic successes on a single roll unless an individual GM has
36
created a special circumstance where such a thing is allowed. Rolls
eligible for an automatic success include physical feats (such as
lifting a car to save a trapped child or running an extraordinary
distance), activation rolls for Path and Way powers. Skill or task
specific rolls, such as hotwiring a car or hacking into a mainframe
computer, can be eligible for automatic successes if a GM wishes it
that way. The GM has a lot of liberty when declaring what is or is
not an eligible roll for an automatic success. As an example of an
automatic success, a character can spend one temporary Willpower
point to ensure a success on their power activation roll, then spend
the additional temporary Willpower points necessitated by the
power. An automatic success is treated like any other success and
botches will subtract one just like they subtract normal, rolled
successes.
Regaining Temporary Willpower – Temporary Willpower can be
regained by a full rest period. If Temporary Willpower has reached
zero then a character must deeply sleep for an entire 24-hour
period before regaining a dot back.
Willpower Combat – Willpower combat takes place when one character attempts
to use a power directly on another character that has at least a Path. When
a character attacks, they must roll their temporary Willpower against a
difficulty set by the opponent’s temporary Confidence dots. For example,
37
if the opponent has 5 temporary Confidence dots the difficulty of the roll
is 5. If the opponent has 7 the difficulty is 7. The attacking character must
get as many successes as their opponent has temporary Willpower dots. If
the opponent has 4 temporary Willpower dots 4 successes are required. If
the defending opponent has 6 temporary Willpower dots the number of
successes required is 6. Each botch subtracts from each success but does
nothing more than this. Before the character rolls their power activation
roll (assuming they have achieved the number of successes required) the
defending opponent (or target) automatically gets a chance to roll his or
her own temporary Willpower. The difficulty of the target’s roll is
determined by the attacking character’s temporary Confidence rating. If
the attacking character (the attacker) has a temporary Confidence rating of
7 the difficulty is 7. If the attacker has a temporary Confidence rating of 9
the difficulty is 9. The target must get the same number of successes or
higher as the attacking character got on their roll to deflect the attack. If
the attacker got 6 successes the target needs 6 successes. If the attacker got
10 successes the target needs 10 successes. Every single botch subtracts
from every single success but has no other effect. If the target succeeds,
the attack fails and the attacker cannot try again until the next combat
round. If the target fails, the attacking character gets to roll their power as
normal. The power’s effects will be suitably altered as described in the
appropriate section under the Confidence And Skewing Power
Manifestation heading. GMs take note: just because a player is making
38
this roll from the defending or attacking position does not mean they have
to know the difficulty or the number of successes required. The player has
to make the roll whether or not they know these things. When the rolling
is finished the player can simply be told that they succeeded or failed. It is
up to the player to guess what is needed during combat. This might be
frustrating for the player but it is more true to the game. Of course, as the
GM you can completely ignore what you were just told and give the
players all the information necessary to make a well informed decision
(such as increasing temporary Willpower before trying an attack). One last
thing. Certain Way Rituals take time, more time than is allowed for in a
normal round of combat. This means that the Ritual will take multiple
rounds to complete. If this is the case, a character must engage their
opponent in Willpower Combat every single full-action round until the
Ritual activates. If Willpower Combat fails at any point, or if the character
takes damage to their Health, the Ritual is interrupted and must be started
all over again. Temporary Willpower is not expended until a Ritual is
complete.
Expanding Temporary Willpower For Combat – If, during Willpower
Combat, a character realizes that they do not have enough
Willpower to achieve as many successes as an opponent has
temporary Willpower dots, they may choose to raise their
temporary Willpower points. The character must declare they are
their raising temporary Willpower at the beginning of the combat
39
round. The character must give up all other actions such as any sort
of automatic defensive rolls (including normal Willpower combat
rolls), their move action, and their attack action. Basically the
character falls into a trance. During the trance they are aware of
their surroundings but can do nothing besides raising their own
temporary Willpower. The character then rolls their permanent
Willpower against a difficulty of 11 minus the character’s current
number of temporary Willpower dots. If the character only has 1
temporary dot of Willpower the difficulty is 10, if the character has
3 dots of temporary Willpower the difficulty of the roll is 8. Every
4 successes rolled gains the character a temporary point of
Willpower. To describe it in other terms, the character must
already have a greater than average Willpower to even attempt
this. The character can endlessly add as many temporary
Willpower dots as they wish using this method, even if that total is
over 10. Temporary Willpower added this way can, however, only
be used during a Willpower Combat roll to overcome (not defend
from) an opponent, and these added dots are lost at the end of the
combat scene. Note that expanded temporary Willpower cannot be
used to roll for more expanded temporary Willpower, and new
expanded temporary Willpower does not lower the next roll’s
difficulty. When overcoming an opponent in Willpower Combat
with the temporary Willpower roll described in the Willpower
40
Combat section, a character’s expanded temporary Willpower is
added to the total, giving the character more dice and therefore
more possible successes. For example, if a character has 4 dots of
temporary Willpower and 1 dot of expanded temporary Willpower
they can make their roll with 5 dice. Remember to make a note of
how much expanded temporary Willpower is being used by a
character and keep that tally separate from a character’s normal
temporary Willpower. This is done so that the expanded temporary
Willpower is not used unintentionally for other things, such as
activation of a power. If a character is successfully attacked during
a combat round while they are trying to raise their temporary
Willpower the character is not allowed to roll for that round
because their concentration has been broken. The character is also
prevented from being able to act. If they have already made their
roll for a combat round and they are attacked their roll is still
negated, whether they had been successful or not, and they cannot
perform any other actions. If a character expends all their normal
temporary Willpower during combat they can still move around as
long as they have expanded temporary Willpower. A character
who only has expanded temporary Willpower left is essentially
moving on extreme force of will in dire circumstances (this can be
done only during a combat scene). The character can barely move
at half their normal walking pace, and they can only move out of
41
the way of danger. If the character is incapable of moving out of
harms way and realizes there is no escape, they will collapse where
they stand, becoming unconscious. Their expanded temporary
Willpower will dissipate at the end of the combat scene as per
normal.
Using Willpower To Automatically Stop An Attack – If a character
knows of Paths and Ways (meaning they need not have a Path,
simply know of the existence of Paths) said character could
automatically stop a power from being used on them if they meet
certain prerequisites. When performing the auto-stop a character
must give up their move action on their next turn to concentrate on
fighting the incoming power attack. GMs please remember that
players won’t know if they can prevent the use of a power on them
through this method unless their character knows – meaning that a
player shouldn’t know an opponent’s Confidence rating or
Willpower rating unless their character has some special means of
discovering them. If a player decides to do this action without
realizing they will fail before they even begin, it is their problem.
Sometimes chances have to be taken during the course of normal
role-playing. To perform an auto-stop on a power being used on a
character, the temporary Willpower of the character must be twice
that of the attacking power user’s permanent Confidence. So if the
attacking power user has a permanent Confidence of 5, the
42
defending character must have 10 dots of temporary Willpower. If
the attacking power user has 6 dots of permanent Confidence, the
character must have 12 temporary Willpower dots. The character
defending against a power can include expanded temporary
Willpower (if they have any) when totaling their temporary
Willpower for this roll. This is the only time expanded temporary
Willpower can be used outside of overcoming an opponent during
Willpower Combat. The character (or defender) must also know
that an attacking opponent is using a power on them. Finally, the
defender can only make this roll after Willpower Combat is done
and an opponent has activated their power successfully against the
defender. If the defender meets the temporary Willpower
requirement they then make a temporary Willpower roll. Every dot
of normal temporary Willpower equates to one die (6 normal
temporary Willpower dots means 6 dice to roll). Every 2 dots of
expanded temporary Willpower equates to 1 die, rounded down. 6
expanded temporary Willpower dots means 3 extra dice to roll. 7
expanded temporary Willpower dots also means 3 extra dice to
roll. 8 dots means a character gets 4 additional dice. The difficulty
of the roll is equal to the attacking character’s permanent
Confidence rating. If the attacking character (the attacker) has a
permanent Confidence rating of 5 the difficulty of the roll is 5. If
the attacker has 7 dots of permanent Confidence the difficulty of
43
the roll is 7. The defender needs at least as many successes as the
attacker got on their activation roll when that attacker activated
their power. If the attacker got 5 successes when they activated
their power the defender needs 5 successes. Each botch subtracts
from each success. If the defender’s successes are outweighed by
their botches (as in they got 1 success and 2 botches) the power
they were defending against will have an effect that is twice as
potent as before. It is up to the GM to make the necessary
alterations after a botch. For example, if a power was being used to
partially paralyze the defender’s heart it can now totally paralyze
their heart or partially paralyze all the organs in their chest. A GM
can stick to magnifying statistics (such as increasing a five foot
cube of effect to a 10 foot cube) if they are unsure. A character
shouldn’t be able to choose how their power’s effects are to be
magnified unless the GM has granted this ability to a controlling
player for their own reasons. The defender does not need to have a
Confidence rating equal or higher than their attacker’s to perform
this action. This is an extra stop that can be done by anyone with
Path and Way knowledge in addition to the Willpower Combat
battle two Paths and Ways characters engage in (note that normally
only a character with at least a Path will have expanded temporary
Willpower).
44
Using Willpower To Stop An Auto-Stop – If certain prerequisites are
met, a character can prevent an opponent from performing an autostop to dispel the character’s power as described above in the
Using Willpower To Automatically Stop An Attack section. To
do this a character needs twice the temporary Willpower as their
opponent or target has temporary Confidence. If a targeted
opponent has a temporary Confidence rating of 5 the attacking
character (or attacker) must have a temporary Willpower rating of
10. If a target has a temporary Confidence rating of 7 the attacker
needs a temporary Willpower rating of 14. A character cannot use
expanded temporary Willpower when totaling their temporary
Willpower for this action. If a character needs more temporary
Willpower to accomplish this action they must find it through other
means. A character also has to have at least a Path to perform this
action. GMs note that an opponent will not know their chance to
achieve an auto-stop has been preempted until they actually try to
perform one. Whether or not a character has enough temporary
Willpower to prevent an auto-stop, they must declare that they are
doing so at the beginning of their turn before doing anything else.
As usual a player has to guess if this move is even worth trying.
Once a character has decided to preempt they have to give up their
move action for that combat round in order to maintain their focus.
Also, declaring a preemptive stop of an auto-stop prevents a
45
character from making their own auto-stop roll to halt an enemy’s
power attack – even if the character is capable. The preemptive
stop is automatic for the character; it simply prevents an opponent
targeted for a power attack from making the roll described under
the section Using Willpower To Automatically Stop An Attack.
Using Willpower to Attempt A Fast Power Attack – Every single Path
and Way character is trying to alter the environment around them
all the time (at least subconsciously). This makes it difficult to use
an active, reality altering power on a character with at least a Path.
Therefore, to use a power an attacker must engage their opponent
in Willpower Combat. But once, and only once, per combat scene
the character who gets to act first during that scene (meaning the
character who gets to move before everyone else) can attempt a
fast power attack. A character who gets more rounds than a normal
character can still only do a fast power attack once. This is
essentially a surprise attack that bypasses Willpower Combat and
catches an opponent unaware. By the time the second round of
combat has begun all the characters are too prepared for something
like this to work. When making a fast power attack a character
gives up their defensive Willpower auto-stop roll as described in
the section Using Willpower To Automatically Stop An Attack
and the preemptive stop described in the section Using Willpower
To Stop An Auto-Stop for that first round of combat. To perform
46
a fast power attack a character must first have a temporary
Willpower rating of 10. Next a target must be chosen. Only one
target can be chosen for a fast power attack. Whether or not a
power can effect more than one person is irrelevant – during this
specific attack it will only work on one target. Once the target is
chosen the character rolls the power they are using in the way
described by that power. The power will take two extra dots of
temporary Willpower to activate (so 2 more dots will be subtracted
from the characters temporary Willpower pool in addition to the
normal amount used by the power). The power will still be skewed
according to the temporary Confidence ratings of the characters
around the attacker (including the target’s Confidence rating) but
the target will have no opportunities to deflect the attack, even with
the auto-stop described in the Using Willpower To Automatically
Stop An Attack section. If an attacking character botches their
power activation roll during a fast power attack they will not only
incur the normal power activation botch penalties (such as losing a
temporary dot of Confidence unless they make their save) the
power itself will always be turned back against the user. This
means that if a character was trying to paralyze an opponent the
attacking character will be the one paralyzed. Like any target of a
fast power attack a character that has botched will not have a
47
chance to deflect – though perhaps luckily for them the power will
still be appropriately skewed by the presences around them.
Combining Willpower In A Group – If certain prerequisites are met, a
group of characters can stop an opponent from using any of their
powers by combining their temporary Willpower. The first
requirement is that all of the characters combining their temporary
Willpower must know that their will has the power to change
reality. None of them has to have a Way or even a Path. Next the
combining characters (or combiners) have to coordinate with each
other. This means that the 2 or more combiners must be able to
indicate who or what their target is. If the combiners don’t know
whom they are combining their temporary Willpower against they
will never succeed. GMs note that simple player-to-player
communication will not suffice – the characters themselves must
be able to communicate intent to each other. When coordinating,
which can be done before combat begins as long as the target has
been singled out properly (like “get the man in the red shirt”), the
combiners can choose one target and one target only. This has to
be a particular target (not a group of people or singular
consciousnesses). The combiners need to have a total temporary
Willpower rating that is 3 times that of the target’s. If a targeted
opponent has a temporary Willpower pool of 5, the combining
characters must have a total temporary Willpower pool of 15. If the
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target’s temporary Willpower rating is 10, the combiners must
have a temporary Willpower rating that totals 30. If the combiners
can achieve the total amount of temporary Willpower necessary,
and can coordinate properly, they can then make a combined
temporary Willpower roll against a difficulty of their targeted
opponent’s temporary Willpower. If the target has a temporary
Willpower of 10 the difficulty will be 10, if the target has 1 dot
then the difficulty is 1. Every die of the combiners’ totaled
temporary Willpower is to be rolled (though shortcuts can be
taken, like making every die count for 2). If the combiners get just
1 success they can then prevent their target from utilizing any sort
of power whatsoever – the only exceptions are things like the
permanent body alterations a Body Path user can employ, but that
user must have done those alterations before Willpower was
combined against them. Passive abilities that do things like grant
Social roll bonuses and extra rounds are included. Boiled down,
this means Path and Way users are reduced to operating like their
old selves, all of their powers stripped away. GMs make a note to
now treat this character like an opponent with will as described in
the Confidence And An Ignorant Opponent With Will section.
A character who has had their powers stripped in this manner can
still defend themselves from a power attack using the auto-stop roll
described in the Using Willpower To Automatically Stop An
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Attack section. The character cannot defend themselves during
Willpower Combat because an opponent using a power on them
doesn’t need to engage them in Willpower Combat. The combiners
themselves can still operate normally. Every botch the combiners
make subtracts from every success (1 success plus 1 botch equals 0
successes). If the combining characters botch more than they
succeed their combined force of Willpower will backlash against
them, preventing any character part of the combining group from
using any of their own powers for 1 round. To put it another way,
if the combiners get 5 botches and 0 successes the Path and Way
characters in their group will be totally powerless and reduced to
mere mortals once again for one round. The combiners can
continue combining their temporary Willpower against an
opponent for as many rounds as they like without having to make
any new rolls. If at any point one of the combiners uses enough
temporary Willpower to drop the group’s total below the
temporary Willpower needed, the target will instantly regain full
use of their powers. If 30 temporary Willpower dots total are
necessary and the group suddenly has only 29 the targeted
opponent can use their powers that round (if they haven’t taken
their turn yet). If the target has already taken their turn they can use
their powers next round. Note that expanded Willpower is of no
help when combining Willpower against an opponent. The
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combiners can, of course, also simply stop combining their
Willpower against the opponent, allowing the opponent to regain
their powers. If the combiners go below the limit of temporary
Willpower needed they have to make the combined temporary
Willpower roll all over again if they somehow reacquire the
temporary Willpower necessary (like if a new character on their
side has shown up at the combat scene). If they voluntarily stopped
and decide that it was a bad idea to stop, or if the combiners are
changing targets, a new roll must still be made. GMs please
remember that the characters, and therefore the players, will not
know they have been successful until they see the total lack of
power use by their target. A target will always know that
Willpower has been combined against them because they will feel
the reality around them sinking back to normal. Though a character
might not have realized how much an effect their mere presence
was having on their reality, they will notice the sudden lack of that
effect. This is akin to someone not noticing a background noise in
his or her environment until suddenly the noise is gone, making
itself clear by its absence. Finally, it is important to keep in mind
that Willpower can be combined against a character with Faith.
The total amount of combined temporary Willpower necessary is
changed from 3 times the target’s temporary Willpower to 4 times
the target’s temporary Willpower. So if a group of combiners were
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to combine their temporary Willpower against a character with
Faith they would need 40 dots total (or more if the character had
increased their Willpower beyond 10).
Overcoming Combined Willpower – If a character has had Willpower
combined against them but wishes to continue using their powers
they have one option: overcome every success by the temporary
Willpower combining group (or the combiners). One thing to note,
whenever a character has to activate one of their powers using the
following method their power uses up 2 more dots of temporary
Willpower than it normally would. For example, if the power
requires 5 dots of temporary Willpower to use it will now require
7. If it needed 8 it now needs 10. Remember that expanded
temporary Willpower cannot be used to enable a power (only
normal temporary Willpower gets sapped). Also note that the
following roll cannot be botched and a character making it will not
incur any botch penalties. This is due to the fact that the
character’s powers have become so suppressed a botch is
meaningless. When trying to overcome a combined temporary
Willpower roll a character gets to add their available temporary
Willpower dice plus their power activation dice. Expanded
Willpower can be used for this roll as this roll is considered a form
of Willpower Combat. Since this is considered a Willpower
Combat roll expanded temporary Willpower dice are rolled at a 1
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die per 1 dot ratio (every dot of expanded temporary Willpower
equates to 1 extra die). So if a character has 2 Path or Way dice to
use to activate their power, 5 dots of temporary Willpower, and 3
dots of expanded temporary Willpower the character has a die total
equaling 10 (2 dice plus 5 dice plus 3 dice makes for a dice pool of
10). GMs note that a character, and therefore a player, won’t in
general know if they have enough dice to succeed until they try.
When the character is activating their power against a target they
only get one roll. This will be known as the combined activation
roll. In this way overcoming combined Willpower is different than
normal Willpower Combat – a character does not get to overcome
their opponent’s Willpower then make a separate activation roll.
This is a very focused, intensified use of the character’s power
meant to break through an incredible amount of force. When a
character wishes to use an active power they must get more
successes on their combined activation roll than the combiners got
on their combined temporary Willpower roll. If the combiners got
8 successes the character needs at least 9 successes on their
combined activation roll. If the combiners made 20 successes on
their roll the character needs 21 on his or her roll. There is another
catch. If a character is making this roll against a target capable of
Willpower Combat that target will act as though they had been
engaged in Willpower Combat. Thus the character needs the
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required successes to match their target’s temporary Willpower in
addition to the successes necessary to overcome the combined
Willpower roll successes. The target also gets to match the
attacking character’s additional successes on their Willpower
Combat defensive roll to stop the attack. The target also gets a
chance at an auto-stop as described in the Using Willpower To
Automatically Stop An Attack section. Finally, the target
determines the difficulty of the roll, or the difficulty is determined
by the power as described in that power’s section (the highest
applicable difficulty is used). To clarify, a character succeeds on
their combined activation roll (the combiners had 10 successes and
the character got 11) against a target with a temporary Confidence
rating of 5, which had made the highest applicable difficulty of the
roll 5. The character is now considered to have 1 success on both
their power activation roll and their Willpower Combat roll.
Because the character has targeted a character capable of
Willpower Combat, and that target has a temporary Willpower
rating of 6, the attack fails right here because the character is
considered to have only 1 success. To go through another scenario,
the difficulty of the combined activation roll is again 5 because the
target has a temporary Confidence rating of 5. This time the
character who is attacking gets 16 successes on their combined
activation roll. The target, again, has a temporary Willpower rating
54
of 6 and the combiners, again, had 10 successes on their roll. The
character has now made the minimum number of successes
necessary to use a power on their target – 10 combined Willpower
successes plus 6 temporary Willpower dots equals 16 necessary
successes. Plus the character is considered to have 6 power
activation roll successes. Note that if a character now has more
power activation successes than they are normally capable of the
number of successes is considered to be at their normal maximum
(if they could only normally get 2 successes they are considered to
have their maximum 2 successes). But now the target gets to make
their normal Willpower Combat deflection roll as described in the
Willpower Combat section. If the target gets 6 successes the
attack again fails because the target only needed to get as many
successes as the attacker got on their roll, and the attacker is
considered to have only 6 successes. If the target fails to deflect
and doesn’t use (or doesn’t successfully use) an auto-stop roll the
power goes off as it normally would – properly skewed and
everything. If the power a character is trying to use on their
combined activation roll has different effects depending on the
number of successes then the character must get that many more
successes necessary. In other words, they must be considered to
have more than the single success necessary to activate the power.
For example: the combiners have gotten 20 successes. The
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character needs 21 to just activate their roll. If they get 22 they are
considered to have 2 successes on their power activation roll and
their power’s effects are upped accordingly. If a character is trying
to use a passive power (or one that gives them certain bonuses such
as extra rounds per turn) the difficulty of activation is determined
by that power or is 5. For example, many Path abilities are always
on and do not have an activation difficulty because they need no
activation roll. In this case the difficulty is considered to be 5,
though the GM can alter the difficulty as they see fit. A character
trying to activate a passive ability will make their combined
activation roll as per normal. It should be noted that in the case of
Path passive ability activation, the Path rating is what is combined.
Thus if a character has a Path rating of 3, a temporary Willpower
rating of 3, and an expanded temporary Willpower rating of 2 they
will have a combined dice pool of 8. The difficulty of the roll is 5
because there is no target (and therefore there is no Willpower
Combat). The temporary Willpower combiners have made 7
successes to overcome. The character rolls and all of their dice
come up successes (making the number of successes 8). The
character has now activated their passive power for the duration of
this round (the one where they rolled their power) and the next
round. Again, if the power has different effects depending on the
number of successes, the character using the power must get past
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the minimum successes necessary to activate it before the
enhanced effects occur.
Faith – When a character has moved beyond simple Confidence and Willpower they
have acquired Faith. A character with Faith believes in themselves or their beliefs
so much so that those around him or her are quickly becoming less of a deterrent.
Gaining Faith – A character with a Confidence rating of 10 and a Willpower
rating of 10 is now capable of Faith. Faith is not automatically granted
once one has 10 dots in each rating – to achieve that final step the player
must roll their full temporary Confidence plus full temporary Willpower
against a difficulty of 11 minus their primary personality attribute (their
Rational or Irrational rating). All 20 dice must be successes (the 10
temporary Willpower and 10 temporary Confidence dice). Any botches
will subtract from the number of successes (1 botch subtracts 1 success).
The inclusion of their personality attribute represents the character’s
attempt to fully realize what Faith is and to integrate it into their very
being. If a character has a rating of 1 in their primary personality attribute
the difficulty of the roll is 10. If a character has a rating of 10 for their
personality attribute (Rational or Irrational, depending on which they use)
the difficulty is 1. The roll difficulty cannot be lower than 1, even if a
character has a Rational/Irrational personality type. To perform the roll a
character must have full temporary Willpower and Confidence when they
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gain the final dot in either. For example, if a character has a permanent
Willpower rating of 10 (and their temporary Willpower rating is at the 10
max) and that character suddenly gets their 10th dot of permanent
Confidence (and their temporary Confidence is now full) they can make
the roll to acquire Faith. If this character’s Rational or Irrational rating is 8
(whichever they rely on) the difficulty of the roll is 3. They must then get
20 successes. If successful the character now has Faith. If a character fails
their roll the first time they may make it again after a week, or seven days,
if they have full temporary Willpower and Confidence ratings.
Powers Of Faith – Faith is a powerful force, and characters with it always get a
free automatic attempt to stop another from using an active power in their
presence, under any circumstance. Any circumstance means a character
with Faith can stop someone else from using a power even while that
character is raising expanded temporary Willpower or is using a power of
their own. This can be done by rolling normal temporary Willpower
against a difficulty of the other user’s permanent Confidence. The
difficulty can only go up to 5, even if the user being stopped has a
permanent Confidence rating of 10. The character using Faith to stop
another’s power needs as many successes as the other user has temporary
Willpower dots, minus 1. For example, if the character being stopped from
using a power has a temporary Willpower of 7, the number of successes
required is 6. If the other character has a temporary Willpower rating of
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10, the number of successes required is 9. If the other character has a
temporary Willpower of 1 no successes are necessary and the stop is
automatic. Expanded temporary Willpower is not considered. A character
with Faith cannot stop another character with Faith using this technique. A
character with Faith is always considered to have a Confidence rating of
10 and a Willpower rating of 10 when determining successes, difficulties,
and power alterations for others – even if the character with Faith has
expended their temporary Willpower below this number or has lost
temporary Confidence. For example, in Willpower Combat a character
without Faith who is attacking someone with Faith has a difficulty of 10
on their Willpower Combat roll, and the number of successes required is
10. As another example, when determining how Path and Way characters
are skewing each others powers, the character with Faith is considered to
have a temporary Confidence rating of 10, even if this is not true. But this
does not, however, mean that the character with Faith can always roll 10
dice – the number of dice they have is still based on their actual temporary
Willpower and Confidence ratings. For example, if a character with Faith
were to engage someone without Faith in Willpower Combat his or her
difficulty would still be the opponent’s temporary Confidence rating, and
the successes necessary would still be the opponent’s temporary
Willpower rating. The character with Faith would then still only have as
many dice to roll as they have actual temporary Willpower dots (if they
have 4 dots they can only roll 4 dice as per usual for Willpower Combat).
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Note that when two characters with Faith encounter each other their Faith
cancels out and they must face each other (and only each other) as though
they were both normal characters with no Faith. Their special bonuses will
still apply to those around them who don’t have Faith, but the two
characters with Faith are on an equal footing. Thus all difficulties,
successes, and power skewing will be handled in the normal fashion
between the two – a character with Faith does not have a 10 difficulty to
be attacked in Willpower Combat by another character with Faith (their
difficulty to be attacked will be determined by their actual temporary
Confidence rating as it would be for a normal character). A character with
Faith always gets an automatic success in Willpower Combat and on any
power activation roll, even when dealing with another character with
Faith. They also regain temporary Confidence at twice the normal rate – in
other words they get 2 dots of temporary Confidence instead of just 1. A
character with Faith is, in addition to their other bonuses, immune to
Presence Pressure as described in the Presence Pressure sections under
the Confidence And Skewing Power Manifestation heading.
A Pathless Character With Faith – GMs and players please note that a
character with Faith does not need to have a Path or Way.
Obviously these characters wouldn’t engage in Willpower Combat,
but they get all the normal Faith bonuses. They can still stop the
use of a power by another, assuming they know a power is being
used. They are still considered to have a 10 Confidence and 10
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Willpower rating when it comes to measuring difficulties, skews,
and successes required for those around them or attacking them.
Loosing Faith – A character with Faith who looses all of their temporary
Confidence, or looses a point of permanent Confidence, looses their Faith
and must regain it as described above after regaining all of their
Confidence back. A character who has lost all of their temporary
Willpower, or has lost a permanent dot of Willpower, must also re-roll for
Faith after regaining their Willpower back.
Role-Playing Faith – Some GMs like to describe what’s happening in a
character’s head or what’s happening to a character like a narrator. These
GMs even describe what’s going on with their players’ characters. Other
GMs leave it up to the players to describe their characters. Whoever is
describing a character’s reactions to their experiences, please try to make
the gaining of Faith a role-playing experience. Clearly a break through has
been made and a character with Faith will not only find the Faith gaining
experience revelatory or fulfilling (or however a group wishes to describe
it), but they may also act and feel differently afterwards. A character with
Faith should be role-played as a person with the most extreme amount of
confidence imaginable. This confidence is different from a
megalomaniac’s though. A character with Faith need not act like a jerk,
they are just always sure. They are even sure of what they don’t know. A
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character with Faith is probably the character most capable of making a
decisive decision – but remember that their decision can still be the wrong
one (they are probably more willing to admit that they are wrong than a
megalomaniac, but they also see the need for a quick decision to be made).
And just because a character has Faith doesn’t mean they won’t pass on a
decision to another. They will just be surer that they made the right choice
in having another, more qualified person make an important decision.
Personality Types – These are the three basic, fundamental personality types. All unique
character personalities evolve from these. Thus the Rational and Irrational ratings
will be used during the game instead of a rating such as intelligence to measure a
character’s innate thinking abilities. These sections also deal with how to increase
these ratings. Keep in mind that they assume a campaign involving a heavy
amount of role-playing. If a player expects their character to advance using the
methods described below they will probably have to come up with an in-depth
belief system for their character. This is so the GM can set up situations
appropriate to the character’s advancement along their mode of thought, situations
which match the character’s unique personality. As part of creating the character
certain basic assumptions about how reality operates, especially where the Paths
are concerned, should have been built into the character (see the Building A
Character section for more details). If the player doesn’t do this work the GM
will have to, imagining what a certain character would think of as conformation of
their way of thinking. Remember, though, that in the end it is up to the role-
62
playing group to determine how involved with this process they wish to get. If the
task seems too daunting for the GM and the players they can use the alternative
method of growing their thought ratings with experience as described in the
World Experience And Growing A Character section. Note that roles to
increase either the Rational or Irrational ratings cannot be botched.
Rational – Personalities favoring this trait are based in logic and reason. This
does not mean that their logic and reason must be based only on the
observable, and it does not mean that they deny feeling, but they will
attempt to integrate their beliefs in a rational, mental way. This character
may reason that God exists because there must be a creative impetus that
caused the universe to come into existence in the first place, and the
character will proceed to come up with examples and rationales to explain
this view. Or, this character may reason that God does not exist because
the universe works at random or through physics and evolution, with no
“force” driving it, and will also come up with examples and rationales to
justify their point of view. Choices (deciding what is “real” and “true” and
what is not) and justifications for those choices are the basic aspects for
those personality types favoring this trait.
Rationality And The Paths – Characters who favor this are more inclined
to accept the Paths of Mind and Body, as their functions are more
easily understood through reason. Thus the experience costs for
dots in Spirit and Connection are half-again as much, rounded
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down (since they are not as easily understood through reasoning).
So if the cost for a dot were 4 it would be 6, if it were 5 it would
now be 7, if it were 6 it would now be 9.
Increasingly Rational – A character may increase their Rational rating
through confirmation of their reasoning. There are a variety of
ways this can be done. The simplest way is to allow a character to
roll at the end of a successful conclusion. What qualifies as a
necessary successful conclusion is up to the GM, be that successful
escape from a pursuit or the end of a story-line. A character is
allowed to roll at this point because evidently whatever choices
they made were the right choices – the character would now be
looking back on what they chose to do to see what part of what
they did was correct. This method of Rational growth can be
expanded upon. Anytime the character is able to observe and
analyze a part of their reasoning process with the goal of
separating what is useful from what is useless in a major way, the
character should be allowed to roll for more Rational dots. This is
because they are digging down to the true elements of their
reasoning ability, finding what way of thinking is best and how
best to use that way of thinking. The only prerequisite is that the
character must be able to analyze what they did and see how what
they did got them to a goal. Knowing the answer without knowing
how they got the answer is useless to a Rational character.
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Alternately, knowing a process that doesn’t lead to an answer and
has no usefulness is also an exercise in pointlessness. Above all,
reasoning requires a point. Processes are created either to find a
point, and points are always analyzed using processes. Thus, the
Rational character grows only when they can develop their own
thinking by cutting down on useless thinking processes. This is
done mostly through trial and error. Think of it this way. A
Rational character suspects that there is a Control spy in their
group. They then begin by logically coming up with a variety of
methods to root out the spy, from subtle questioning to following
to some sort of background check. Let us say that the Rational
character eventually finds a successful method of exposing the spy
and gets rid of the spy. At this point the Rational character would
get a chance to roll for a new Rational dot. The roll represents their
internal thinking. They would first analyze what thought process
first gave them the idea that there was a spy (keep in mind this
doesn’t have to be too complicated). They then analyze what
thoughts produced the proper method of exposing and eliminating
the spy. In essence, the Rational character is rolling to find the
basic, fundamental thought processes that produce the best results.
The character then takes steps to strengthen or enhance those
specific processes. Therefore a Rational character can only grow
when they have a set of processes large enough to draw
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conclusions from – such as those processes which occurred during
the length of a story. But anything might do, just as long as GMs
and players keep in mind that the processes involved must be
broad enough to apply to life and events in general, not to
something very specific like a math equation. It is not necessary to
role-play this process or explain it, as it would be very personal to
the character and how they specifically think, but if a player or GM
can explain it then do so. If the GM thinks a character has come to
the proper moment, the player rolls the character’s Rational rating
against a difficulty of 5. Only 1 success is required to get 1 new
Rational dot. If the character gets an overwhelming success on half
their dice, or they have as many successes as dice, then the
character gets 2 new Rational dots for integrating and fully
rationalizing this new or enhanced part of their thinking process. If
luck, a GM may decide that this new Rational dot also comes with
a new permanent Confidence dot (after all, the character has just
figured out how to make themselves smarter). When a character
has 10 dots in both the Rational and Irrational attributes that
character gains access to the Rational/Irrational personality types.
Just because a character may favor reason over intuition does not
mean that the character cannot develop this other trait.
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Irrational – Personalities favoring this trait are based on feeling and intuition.
Reason is by no means abandoned, but the character will attempt to
integrate new information based on what they feel to be true. To an
Irrational character reality is not reasoned out, with choices justified.
Instead, these characters believe that certain ways of thinking are just
more right than others, that certain actions will strike a chord within them.
A player who has chosen the Irrational might, if asked to explain why they
have chosen certain Paths or Ways or methods of living or belief, state that
they don’t know why – they just feel it in their gut and in their heart. This
character would say God exists because they believe God exists, they can
feel the divine presence all around them. Or they might say God does not
exist, just look around, can’t you see the absence of the divine in all the
suffering? Feeling is paramount to this character, intuition their guide.
Irrationality And The Paths – Characters who favor this are more
inclined to take the Paths of Spirit and Connection, as these are
understood more through feeling them out then trying to
understand them with reason. Thus the cost to raise the Paths of
Body and Mind are half-again what they normally are, rounded
down (because they are not as easily understood through intuition).
If the cost to raise a dot were 7 it would now be 10, if 8 it would be
12, if 9 it would be 13.
Increasingly Irrational – A character wishing to raise their Irrational
rating has a few options. Some of these options may lead to a boost
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in Confidence at the GM’s discretion. To start, a character can dig
down to the core of their being in an attempt to strip away their
reason, to get at what they are really feeling in the here and now
and know that they believe (or, in truth, do not believe) in what
they are doing or know that a major choice the character may be
facing is or is not right. A player is welcome to come up with a
method for doing this on their own, using a process determined
between himself or herself and the GM. As an example, a player’s
character has been asked to betray a friend for gain or profit. The
character can, in an attempt to think on their decision in their
intuitive way, leave the city and head for the forest (essentially
they have put themselves in isolation). There the character can try
to leave behind any sort of pro or con balance system and just
attempt to figure out how they feel about either choice now and
how they know they will feel afterwards. It would be of the utmost
importance for the character to be honest with himself or herself.
The decision the character makes is irrelevant. What matters is that
the character becomes truly aware of the interplay of emotions
going on inside them and how those emotions lead to the decision
the character makes. Through this process the character has
become more aware of who they are (maybe they have finally
realized they are a jerk). As another example, a character could be
a practicing Catholic. They may have just joined a Way group and
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are finding its beliefs don’t exactly mesh with those of the Catholic
Church. So the character decides to examine in detail Catholicism
and the beliefs of their new Way group. To do this the character
asks questions of their Way friends, Catholic Church members,
priests, etc. The character probably reads the Bible and any
literature produced by their new group. During this entire process
the character has been examining their emotional responses to
everything they learn, paying attention to their gut reactions (like
what their real, felt response is to a priest’s explanation on the
formation of the universe). By the end of this process the character
should know exactly how they feel about Catholicism, their Way
group, and whether or not one or both or neither is for them. The
character has also probably become more aware of how they feel
about groups and ideologies in general. They also have learned
something about who they are in relation to these other things.
Thus, having done all of this work, the character’s intuition has
been built up to a truer, less muddled state. Again, the decision
does not matter. Another, perhaps easier method of increasing a
character’s Irrational rating might involve trying to find a guide
that will further the journey into their inner, felt consciousness –
whether the guide is a drug, a book or religious text that strikes
home, a medicine man or a mentor. One last option for a character
is to see that a series of gut choices they have made has culminated
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in the form of a positive result. The GM has the choice of how
many choices are necessary, what form these choices must have
taken, and what counts as an appropriate culmination of the
character’s decisions. This can be the end of a story line that has
worked out for the character or simply the end, positive result of a
shorter series of decisions that were obviously made on the fly
(based on what the character felt was the right thing to do) – such
as getting away from a desperate pursuit successfully. The GM
can, when they feel a character may have an opportunity to roll to
increase their Irrational rating, have the character’s player explain
how their character might have felt through their ordeal, or explain
how their journey has furthered their felt understanding of
themselves or the world and how much more “in tune” with things
the character is now. If the GM is satisfied with a character’s
progress the character may then roll their Irrational rating against a
difficulty of 5. Only 1 success is required to gain 1 dot. If half their
dice are rolled as overwhelming successes or all their dice succeed
then the player may add 2 dots to their Irrational rating to represent
their enhanced intuition and ability to feel out the universe around
them. If the character has 10 dots in the Irrational and the Rational
that character is allowed access to the Rational/Irrational
personality types. Just because the character views the universe
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with their heart does not mean they have abandoned their mind,
and the character is welcome to increase their Rational rating.
Learning To Use The Head And Heart – At any point during the game a
character may begin trying to increase their opposing personality trait. If
the character has a Rational personality they can raise their Irrational
rating, if they have an Irrational personality they can raise their Rational
rating. There is only one prerequisite – the character must somehow be
forced into a situation where they have to think along the lines of the other
personality type. In other words, a Rational character must be forced to
think Irrationally, and an Irrational character must be forced to think
Rationally. This only has to be done once. After that the character has
come to the realization that there is another mode of thought other than the
one to which they are naturally inclined. The GM has several options
when setting up such an event or situation. The easiest would be for a
character to have a mentor with the other view of thought or a
Rational/Irrational personality type. In this case the mentor could be used
to create a role-playing situation that would force the character to think
differently. Or the mentor could simply work with a character long enough
to make them see how it is to think the other way. The next easiest method
is for the character to have a Path that is not normal to their personality
type (such as a Rational character with the Connection Path). This
character may already understand that their normal mode of thought does
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not always apply and that there is a different way of viewing the universe
– but this may not be true; a Rational character could possibly come up
with a Rational explanation for how the Connection Path works. If neither
of these two methods is available the GM has to set something up from
scratch. One suggestion is that during normal role-play a character can
become exposed to people who have the base personality type different
than the one they posses. Once the character has been exposed they may
seek to force themselves into the other mode of thinking by using an
isolation tank, drugs, or extreme fasting and a total lack of sleep. Or the
character could simply converse with another character who has the
different base personality type long enough to figure out what thinking the
other way is like, but this would take a very, very, very long time (perhaps
months or years of in-game time). The character could also be placed into
a situation where their normal thought mode just wouldn’t work. An
example would be an Irrational character that must figure out how a
computer works without any outside information (such as a manual or text
book). Yes, as part of their intuitive thinking they could figure out what
parts are needed and where they should go and that there must some sort
of program to run things, but in this case they have to go through all the
minutia of the process from an engineering, Rational stand point. To put it
another way, the character has to answer the question, “How does one
come up with a computer?” For the most part Irrational personality types
are not interested in “why” something is, they simply know it to be so. On
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the other hand, a Rational character will start with a question they must
answer or they will have an answer to an unknown question – to them a
process or answer is meaningless unless it can be confirmed and justified,
broken down and examined to find that “why.” Remember that the above
suggestions are just that – suggestions. It is up to the GM to determine
how difficult or easy the process of achieving the proper moment should
be and just how it should occur. The GM is, as always, encouraged to be
as creative and original as possible.
Becoming More Rational And Irrational – Once a character’s eyes have
been opened to the other, different mode of thought, they can raise
it along with their primary way of thinking. For example, if a
character has a Rational personality type and gets to increase their
Rational rating they can also increase their Irrational rating at the
same time. To increase the secondary thought rating the character
must first succeed at increasing their primary rating. If they do they
can then roll their secondary rating with the intent of examining
the conformational moment from the other point of view. This is
achieved by rolling the secondary rating against a difficulty of 8.
Only 1 success is necessary to raise the secondary thought rating
by 1 dot. If half their dice rolled are overwhelming successes or all
of their dice are normal successes then they get to raise their
secondary thought rating by 2 dots. To create an example, once a
character has succeeded on their Rational role and has gained
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another dot in that rating, they then roll their Irrational rating. If
they succeed, their Irrational rating then goes up by 1 or 2 dots
depending on how successful they are.
When One Thought Rating Is At Max And The Other Is Not – If a
character has achieved the maximum rating possible for their
primary rating but their secondary rating is still low the character
will continue having their conformational experiences as normal.
Remember that the character still uses only one rating, Rational or
Irrational, as their primary mode of thought. Confirmation of their
way of thinking must therefore still be done through that method of
thinking. But because the character has fully realized their primary
mode of thinking they need only role their secondary mode of
thought whenever the GM deems it appropriate. The difficulty of
rolling the secondary thought mode is now reduced by 1 making it
7. Successes still apply as normal. To use an example, a character
with a Rational rating of 10 comes upon an experience or moment
that confirms their thinking and their belief as to how reality
operates. Because they already have a 10 Rational rating they roll
their secondary Irrational rating instead to view the experience
from that angle. The difficulty of the roll is now only 7. If they
succeed once they gain 1 dot. If half their successes are
overwhelming they gain 2 dots. If all of their dice come up normal
successes they gain 2 dots.
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Rational/Irrational – A player character or non-player character who has 10 dots
in both their Rational and Irrational ratings has mastered these aspects of
understanding reality and is now ready to move onto the next level of
being. If a player chooses to start the game with a character that has 10
dots in both aspects of personality they are automatically allowed to select
a combined personality type (with the GM’s approval). If a character does
not start the game with both attributes at 10 but through the course of the
game acquires 10 in each, the character is allowed to roll all of their
Rational and Irrational dice at the same time as soon as the last dot is
acquired. The difficulty of the roll is 5. If the character rolls a success on
all 20 of their dice, or overwhelming successes on 10 of their dice, then
the character has successfully merged these two patterns of thinking into
one. If the character fails the first time they attempt this they must spend at
least an hour a day, every day, contemplating on how feeling, intuition,
rationalization, and justification can be merged into one form of thought.
The character must do this, uninterrupted, every day for seven days. At the
end of the seven days the character may then roll again. This is an internal
process and no outside assistance will aid the character at this point. The
character is no longer trying to enhance these aspects but to merge them
together – reason used to justify intuition, intuition used to discover
reasons. A character that started out on the Irrational, who said that this is
the way it is because I feel that it is this way, can now confirm step-by-
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step why it is this way. A character who started out on the Rational, who
said this is so because of these reasons, can now feel how correct their
answer is. A cruel GM can, if they so desire, have their player try and
figure out how this can be done and explain it, but this may be beyond
what a normal human being is capable of doing. Remember that a P & W
character has supposedly evolved beyond the human norm. Once a
character has achieved use of a Rational/Irrational personality type, when
one of these personality attributes is called for on a roll then both may be
rolled together. So if a character is asked to roll their primary personality
type they roll their Rational and Irrational ratings (which should never be
less than 20 dots). This means the character is now rolling their
personality rating with at least 20 dice. Also, Path costs are always normal
for a Rational/Irrational character and they can learn any Path as though it
were natural to their personality. A Rational/Irrational personality also
means a character can never loose Confidence, only gain it. This character
understands their failures and successes in ways others don’t. Finally,
experience is gained at twice the normal rate. This stacks with (is in
addition to) any other learning bonuses.
Meeting Rational/Irrational People – A character who has achieved this
level of mastery of the universe and themselves, who understands
in a way that most do not, is no longer really human – not in the
traditional sense. Whether they are viewed as truly human, more
than human, alien, or on the verge of Godhood is up to the GM, the
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players, and the characters. In any case, they aren’t going to act
like your average person. Finally, a player who has previously
decided to assume that they are always correct (as described in the
Confidence And Megalomania section) gives up this belief in
favor of a truer understanding of reality.
Embarking Upon A New Path Or Way – During the course of a normal game player
and non-player characters are likely to begin new Paths and Ways. A GM may
even choose to start all the player characters off as normal human beings, setting
up the discovery of Path and Way abilities to be the heart of their campaign.
Following are several rules and methods to assist the GM in getting his or her
players a Path or Way, but please keep in mind that the GM can follow these
guidelines as closely or loosely as they desire. One of the unique joys of roleplaying games such as this is the malleability of the system, and both players and
GMs alike are encouraged to be creative. Since The Path And The Way relies
heavily on the interpretation of basic human characteristics (such as confidence)
into a rule system, any role-playing group is welcome to bend this system to their
own point of view – especially when it comes to figuring out how a human being
may evolve past their current state to one where they directly interact with the
cosmos on a fundamental level.
Learning The First Path – When choosing the Path upon which a character is
setting out, the only real restriction is the character’s personality type
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(Rational, Irrational, or Rational/Irrational). The first Path a character gets
must conform to their personality type or the process will not work at all,
as the gaining of a Path is supposed to be a part of their natural
progression or evolution. A GM who wishes to be creative can integrate
the gaining of a first Path that is contradictory to a character’s personality
into their campaign, but circumstances surrounding such an event would
be highly unusual (in other words they must have a very good reason).
Obviously a mentor is the simplest method of introducing a player
character to a Path. A mentor can both raise a character’s Confidence (as
described in the Regaining Temporary Confidence and Mentor
sections) and begin the Character on a Path. The drawback is that the
character must embark on the Path of that mentor. Follow the rules in the
Mentor section of the manual when using one. In absence of a mentor the
GM is given a wide amount of leeway to come up with something on his
or her own. Gaining a Path should almost always be role-played since it is
probably the key event in a character’s life. Even player characters that
have a Way must have started on a Path earlier in their history. Note that a
specific amount of experience is unnecessary when learning the first dot of
the first Path. When a character gets their first Path dot their experience
rating with that Path is considered to be at 1. Some suggestions to begin
the process of introducing a character to a Path include serious study of
literature (with the intent of questioning the status quo), coming into
contact with a powerful artifact (such as an intelligent automaton or power
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granting relic), or being witness to the use of a power by someone else.
Usually the situations the GM creates should cause the pre-Path character
to question reality. The character must then be forced to come to a
decision as to how they may begin to effect their own lives or the reality
around them. The character must be made to believe that they can reach
past their own perceived limits and become something more. A simple
example of one possibility for Path introduction would be for a character
to witness a strange occurrence that leads the character to research into
energy and the paranormal. This then leads the character to realize that the
spirit or soul is not myth, which then leads them to connecting with their
own Spirit – thus starting them on a Path. Obviously each of these steps is
meant to be role-played – first making the encounter then doing the
research, and then perhaps learning a martial art connecting them to their
energy such as Tai Chi. Or the character could take a scientific approach
and find a mad scientist doing out-of-body experiments. The GM should
keep in mind what type of character they are dealing with when coming up
with something suitable. Also, depending on their personality, a character
may simply chance upon the fact that they can do things others would
consider abnormal – like a character who is running from a killer and
suddenly finds that they aren’t getting tired. There is also always the backup method of having the character witness the use of a Path by another and
having that character delve into the experience. Remember at this point
that any character must have a temporary and permanent Confidence of
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five or above to start their Path. Once everything is in place the Path itself
will be actualized by a eureka moment that a character has come to, one
which must be fully understood by the character and applied to their view
of herself or himself. At this moment the character rolls their Rational or
Irrational rating – depending on which their personality favors – against a
difficulty of 9 to understand the experience. Every two successes gives the
character one dot in the Path appropriate to the experience (a Mind Path
appropriate experience, for example, might be the sudden realization they
can guess exactly what anyone else will say). If a character rolls only one
success they may continue trying to integrate the moment and all of it’s
meaning by re-rolling after sleeping on the issue (this can be done
indefinitely as long as they keep making 1 success on their eureka moment
roll). If a character gets no successes they must wait for another individual
and unique epiphany moment as determined by the GM.
Learning The First Way – Most Path-only characters, at least to Way characters,
are loners. Since Ways are so ritualistic and exact often a character will be
introduced to one by a recruiting mentor or friend who is usually part of a
much larger group (a group which many Path-only characters might define
as a cult). But simply because most Way characters stick to like-minded
organizations is not a reason to start a character off with this method of
introduction, especially a player controlled character. As with a Path,
starting a character on a Way should be taken as an important role-playing
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opportunity by the role-playing group. Any Way a character learns has to
be associated with one of the character’s Paths. There are no experience
requirements for the first dot in the first Way but the character has to have
the temporary Willpower required by the Way to activate it. Expanded
temporary Willpower like that used for Willpower Combat won’t do, even
if the ritual would only take a single scene to complete. When a character
has successfully learned a Way they are considered to have an experience
rating of 1 with that Way. To begin a Way a character should know what
happens when the first level of that Way is used, and how that effect is
initiated. Many role-playing opportunities can be created during the
acquisition of this knowledge. For example, a player character can come
upon a secret meeting of a Way organization. During that meeting the
character can witness the use of one or more powers and their associated
rituals. The role-playing opportunity here exists in the evasion or
confrontation of the Way group, the setting up of a ritual on the
character’s own, or the character’s initiation into the group. Almost any
method the GM can invent to get the knowledge of a Way ritual into a
character’s hands would be acceptable. Other methods might include the
character having a trusted group of friends interested in ritual magic. From
here they can range out across the world through trips, books, or the
Internet in search of the first ritual of the Way the character is intended to
learn. Even an ancient, lost text left to the character by a mysterious
relative would work. The depth and creativity of the learning experience is
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always up to the role-playing group as a whole. Finally, the character must
have also fully realized by this time how important their Willpower is
when it comes to altering reality, as the use of Way powers is really the
focused use of Willpower. The character has to learn that they must make
an active, willful effort to make any Way power take effect. Since a
character must already have a Path before they can have a Way the
realization of how important their Willpower is can come naturally
through role-playing and the use of their Path abilities. Because
concentration is required to use many Path abilities a character will often
come to the natural conclusion that Willpower is definitely a key to
bending himself or herself or reality. A Spirit Path character having an
out-of-body experience could definitely attest to this truth. Or a character
could simply be told in-depth how important their Willpower is by a
person or book they trust (but great detail should be given). When a
character has the knowledge they need, they get to roll a single die as
though they already held that Way power (after any ritual involved has
been satisfactorily completed). If they succeed and the Way power is
activated they automatically gain a point of permanent Confidence and the
first level in that Way. When a character succeeds they loose the amount
of temporary Willpower listed by the Way to activate it. If a character fails
their first activation roll they always loose 1 dot of temporary Willpower
(this cannot be expanded Willpower like one would use for Willpower
Combat). Unlike a Path, a character trying to learn a Way can continue
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trying as long as they have the time and the temporary Willpower. Once
all temporary Willpower is expended, or if the character never had the
temporary Willpower required to activate the Way (unlikely at the first
level), the character can no longer try to succeed at the ritual. One of the
key differences between a Way and a Path is that the ritual can be done
over and over again until the character succeeds or is exhausted.
The Second Path And Beyond – Once a character has learned their first Path
they can gain any of the other Paths at any time. As per usual the first dot
in the new Path doesn’t have an experience requirement. If the next Path a
character learns conforms to their personality type they can learn it like
they would as if it were their first Path. That is to say, the character must
encounter a situation or experience that leads to the discovery of this new
Path. This experience can even be self-created by a savvy character who
believes that there are more things possible than just the Path(s) they
already have would allow (such as a Body Path character sick of having so
little control of their mind when they have so much control over their
body). Obviously, the character has at this point realized that they can
reach beyond the normal, acceptable limits of human ability.
Learning An Unnatural Path – If a player or GM intends for a character
to learn a Path outside of their personality type – such as a Rational
personality type character who is to learn the Connection Path –
greater efforts must be made by the character during role-play. The
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character must first have an obvious example of the use of this new
Path (as the use of this personality-contradicting Path will not
come naturally). It would be helpful if the character had this new
Path explained to them during role-play. Continuing from the
above example, a Connection Path user may try to describe in
rational terms to the Rational type character what it is they do
(remember though that the Connection Path user probably has an
Irrational personality type and is restricted when it comes to
describing things in rational terms). Without access to someone
with experience in the Path the character is trying to gain, the
character will be forced to excessive means to try and create the
conditions necessary for a eureka moment. These means can
include having the character recreate a moment where they
witnessed the use of this new Path, redoing it over and over and
over until they realize deep down what must have occurred
(difficult at best, impossible at worst). The character’s Confidence
could be reduced to zero and then rebuilt in accordance with the
methods used by the Path Believers as described in their section
under Special Innate Talents And Aptitudes. The character could
be made to act in a manner opposite their personality type – not in
a manner opposite to their character (which can be frustrating to do
properly). An example of acting in a manner opposite their
personality type would be for a Rational character to follow their
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primal urges as opposed to their logic. Their personality wouldn’t
have changed, but they might start doing extreme things like
walking into a club because they felt the urge to go in but then
immediately walking out because they feel embarrassed to be
there, but then they feel stupid so they walk back in only to walk
right back out. Essentially it is up to the GM to make it as hard as
reasonably possible for a character to learn a Path that does not
conform to the character’s personality type. Once a eureka moment
has been achieved a character will still roll their favored
personality type against a difficulty of 9 to understand and
integrate the moment. The problem, however, is that if the
necessary 2 successes for the first dot are not achieved another
new, unique eureka moment must be created. Because this Path is
based on a system counter to a character’s normal mode of thought
1 success will not allow the character the luxury of sleeping on the
issue and trying again tomorrow. It should be pointed out that it is
up to the GM to determine what qualifies as a eureka moment.
This moment comes through role-playing only and is very specific
to a character. It should be an extraordinary moment where
(according to what the GM knows about the character) a character
has gone over and thought about something so many times, or has
discovered so much about something, that they are ready to believe
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and to come to a new understanding about himself or herself and
the universe at large.
Learning The Next Way – Once a character has learned one Way they will find
it quite easy to learn more. The character is already familiar with how
involved in minutia Ways are and is aware that the success of a ritual is
dependant upon their Willpower. Again, there are no experience
requirements for the first dot in a Way. The character need only have at
least 1 dot in a Way’s associated Path and access to the information
describing a Way’s use and results. As long as these two requirements are
met (and the character has the temporary Willpower to use a Way’s
rituals) a character can learn as many Ways as they wish.
Bringing A Path To The Next Level – Path progression, unlike Way
progression, is a natural process. A Path, once attained, will evolve with a
character as that character gains experience with it. When a character has
attained enough experience with their current Path level they have two
possible methods for advancement to the next. The first method is
allowing the growth to come totally naturally. To say it another way, the
character may roll their primary thought rating (either Rational or
Irrational) when they encounter a situation where the abilities of their next
Path level can be utilized. For example, a Mind Path level 1 character with
enough experience for Mind Path level 2 could find himself or herself in a
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situation where focusing their thoughts on a single thing would be
immensely helpful. The character can, in this situation, roll their
personality type (Rational or Irrational) against a difficulty of 6 to achieve
their next Path level. If they get 1 success they can then utilize their new
Mind Path level 2 concentration ability to solve their current dilemma. The
second method involves the character forcing themselves to go to the next
level of ability. Remember that they must already have enough experience
to go to the next Path level. During the course of using the Path abilities
they already have, a character has the opportunity to think about what
more they could be doing with their Path. The character does this by
rolling their Rational or Irrational rating (whichever is appropriate) against
a difficulty of 8. The character needs to accumulate 20 successes –
meaning that the successes from each roll are tallied together. The
character can make this roll once a day during the use of the Path they
wish to gain a level in. A success is subtracted for every botch incurred,
but botches cannot give the character a negative number of successes (the
character doesn’t have to worry about having –2 successes). Once the
character has accumulated 20 successes they reach a break through and
discover their new Path level abilities. Essentially the character has come
to a minor eureka moment.
Learning The Next Ritual In A Way – When learning a Way a character only
has to have enough Willpower to use the ritual at the level they wish to
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learn. If a Way’s highest ritual requires more temporary Willpower than
the character has, a character only has to worry about not having enough
Willpower when they get to that last level of the Way. When a character is
ready to go past the first level of a Way they must have access to the
Way’s next ritual. If the character has this information, or can research it,
then they may simply perform the ritual as normal. When attempting to
perform a ritual described by the next level of a character’s Way, the
character gets to roll as many dice as they have dots for that Way. So if the
character has 1 dot they roll 1 die. If they have 2 dots they roll 2 dice and
so on. If they fail to learn the ritual they are performing the character will
loose 1 dot of temporary Willpower. If they succeed they loose the amount
of temporary Willpower required by the use of that ritual.
Learning A Ritual Without The Proper Information – If a character
does not have access to the information on the next ritual in their
Way the character may attempt to create the ritual on his or her
own. This means that they are attempting to figure out how the
ritual is done as though the ritual had never been done before and
no information exists on it. To do this the character rolls their
favored personality trait (Rational or Irrational) against a difficulty
of 10 minus 1 for every dot they have in that Way already. If the
character has 1 dot already (which they must) the difficulty would
be 9. If they have 2 the difficulty would be 8 and so on. The
character requires 20 cumulative successes (meaning the successes
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are tallied together from every roll) to figure out what focuses are
necessary for the ritual. It is not guaranteed that the focuses of the
earlier rituals of a Way will be used. A botch will subtract from the
number of cumulative successes. This roll can be made once an
hour every hour. Once the focuses have been discovered the Way
user must then find their exact use. To do this they must have the
focuses in hand. The character then rolls their personality type
again against a difficulty of 8 minus 1 for every dot they have in
that Way already – if they have 2 Way dots the difficulty is 6, if
they have 3 the difficulty is 5. Only 10 successes must be
accumulated to finish this step of the process. Each botch still
subtracts 1 success. This roll can be made 1 time per hour. After
completely determining how the ritual focuses are used, the
character must determine how to apply their Willpower to them in
order to make the ritual occur. The character rolls their personality
type (Rational or Irrational) against a difficulty of 10 minus 1 for
every dot they have in the Way already. If they have 3 dots the
difficulty is 7. If the character already has 4 dots in the Way the
difficulty is 6. 20 successes must be accumulated for the character
to discover in what manner their will is to be applied. This roll can
be made once per hour. Every time the roll is made 1 dot of
temporary Willpower is lost due to the testing of the ritual. Botches
subtract 1 success for every one made. When the character has
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made the 20 successes they must then rest for a full sleep period.
They may then, on the next day, try the ritual. The character gets to
make the roll required by the Way ritual as long as they have the
amount of temporary Willpower required to successfully use the
ritual. Like any first time use of a power or ability the roll cannot
be botched, only failed. If this roll fails the character may try again
as usual.
Creating A Way From Scratch – If a GM has built a campaign where it is
difficult or impossible to find information on any Way there is an
opportunity for a character to create the Ways from nothing. This is,
however, not easy because the character has nothing to work from. Also, a
reason for why a character would want to create something like a Way
after they already have a Path should be role-played. Maybe the character
wants more power sooner. Maybe the character was a ritual magician and
is just doing what comes natural. To begin, the character must have a 10 in
the rating associated with their personality type (Rational or Irrational).
The character must also have a permanent Willpower rating of 10. As with
any character starting along the Ways, they must know that their force of
will can alter reality on a fundamental level. The character is going to
learn how exact a Way ritual is as part of the creation process. If the
character meets these prerequisites they can begin building a Way
associated with a Path they posses. The process starts when the character
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rolls their personality type to figure out what focuses (the character may
need more than 1 depending on the Way) are necessary for the Way they
wish to create. The difficulty of this roll is set to 9 and can be made once
an hour. 40 cumulative successes are necessary and a botch subtracts from
the number of successes accumulated. This may seem like a lot, but
figuring out how to bend the universe with a drawn circle and a few
crystals or thinking certain thoughts in a certain order takes time. The next
step after figuring out what is necessary for the ritual is piecing together
how the various focuses should be used. Note that to complete this step the
character needs to have the focuses required. Use of the focuses is figured
out by rolling the character’s primary personality type against a difficulty
of 8. The number of success required is only 20. This roll can be made
once an hour and all successes are cumulative. As usual a success will be
subtracted for every botch. When the future Way character has 20
successes they must then discover how Willpower is to be applied to the
focuses during the ritual. This is the final step. The character rolls their
personality type as normal. Every time they make this roll the character
looses 1 dot of temporary Willpower to represent their testing. The
difficulty of the roll is 9 and the number of cumulative successes required
is 40. A botch will subtract from the cumulative number of successes. The
character can make this roll once every hour until they succeed or run out
of Willpower. Once the final step is completed and the first ritual of their
first Way has been fully thought out the character must go through 1 full
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sleep period (generally eight hours) before they can try it. At the
beginning of the next day the character may – if they have the temporary
Willpower required – attempt to perform the ritual as though they were
learning any new Way. If successful, the character gets the first dot of that
Way. However, if the character botches they loose a permanent dot of
Confidence. This is because the character has gone through every step of
the creation process involved with this ritual and they would find such a
failure to be a crushing blow to their morale. The character can try again
as long as they have the temporary Willpower and are willing to risk their
Confidence rating. Once the Way has been learned see the Learning A
Ritual Without The Proper Information section to take it further.
When Creating A Way With A Way – If a character already has a Way,
and knows another Way exists for a Path they have, the character
can discover how to accomplish this new Way on their own. This
is done in the same manner as found in the Creating A Way From
Scratch section found right above this one. The difference is that
the character can have any rating for their base personality type
(either Rational or Irrational), and they do not need a permanent
Willpower rating of 10. The reason for this is that the character
does have a working base of knowledge, even if it is in a
completely different Way. Once the Way has been learned, use the
Learning A Ritual Without The Proper Information section to
continue developing the Way.
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Creating A Brand New Way – A creative GM can invent new Paths or
Path abilities if they so desire, however The Path And The Way is
not set up for this possibility as part of normal role-playing. Ways,
though, are a different matter entirely. Inventing an entirely new
Way can be part of a Way character’s nature. It could perhaps even
be the Way character’s primary goal in life. The Ways listed in this
manual are considered to be the most obvious and therefore the
easiest to invent. Consequently, any brand new Ways are going to
be harder to fashion. First, a character intending to design a new
Way must pick which Path the Way is to be coupled with. This
Path must be one the character already possesses. Next, the
character must determine what the effects are at each level of the
Way. If the character is player controlled this is left to the player.
If the character is not player controlled (a non-player character)
this is left to the GM. In either case the GM always gets final
approval because a new Way that is too powerful can upset the
GM’s carefully crafted campaign. GMs should at all times note
what a move like this will do to their campaign. If the GM gives a
player too much leeway in coming up with a new Way they may
end up with a character capable of lifting Mount Everest and
dropping it on a city in Kansas with their first ritual. While the GM
may allow a large group of Way characters to be this powerful, a
normal Way character most likely shouldn’t have such potency –
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unless of course the GM agrees that this is a really good idea. Once
the character has determined what the five rituals are for each level
of this brand new Way, the character can begin the process of
creating the first ritual. This is done using the exact same method
found in the Creating A Way From Scratch section; only it is a
little more difficult. As described in the previous section, the
character must have a 10 in the rating associated with their
personality type (Rational or Irrational). The character must have a
permanent Willpower rating of 10. The character rolls their
personality type to figure out the focuses necessary for the Way
they wish to create. The difficulty of this roll is set to 10 and can
be made once an hour. 80 cumulative successes are necessary and
every one botch subtracts from every one success. The GM may
even wish to make this process longer depending on what exactly
the Way will do once created. When this step is done the character
must get the focuses necessary. Obviously the GM will have to
invent what focuses are used and how many of them are required –
unless they wish for the player to do this. Having a player invent
the focuses on their own would, however, take away some of the
interplay between the GM and the players. Focus use is then
determined by rolling the character’s primary personality type
against a difficulty of 9. The number of success to be accumulated
is 40. This roll can be made once an hour. A success will be
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subtracted for every botch. How the focuses will interact with the
character’s Willpower is then figured. The character rolls their
personality type as customary. Every time they make this roll the
character looses 1 dot of temporary Willpower to signify how they
are testing the ritual. The difficulty of the roll is 10 and the number
of cumulative successes required is 80. A botch will subtract from
the cumulative number of successes. The character can make this
roll once every hour until they succeed or run out of Willpower.
Once successful the character must rest for a full sleep period. On
the next day the character may perform the ritual as though they
were learning any new Way. If successful, the character gets the
first dot of their self-created Way. If the character botches they
loose a permanent dot of Confidence due to the blow against their
ego by failing at something so important to them, and because they
may start wondering if they messed up somewhere along the line.
The character can try again as long as they have the temporary
Willpower and are willing to risk their Confidence rating. Once the
Way has been learned see the Learning A Ritual Without The
Proper Information section to continue the creation process (the
difficulties are the same even though this Way has never existed
before now).
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World Experience And Growing A Character – Characters in The Path And The Way
will have experiences just like any real world person. As they have experiences
and use their abilities the characters will become more proficient at what they do,
again just like any real world person. The Path And The Way measures a
character’s acquisition of experience and increased proficiency with what is,
appropriately enough, called the experience point. The shorthand method of
referring to an experience point is to call it experience or XP. The experience
point is used by players to grow their characters, to make them stronger, faster,
more intelligent, to give them higher Path and Way powers. Alternately, GMs use
the experience point to grow the non-player characters, to make them better at
what they do and to measure their acquisition of new skills and abilities.
Remember, player characters may be the focus of a game but non-player
characters will be growing and learning too during a campaign. The most
effective campaigns will almost always act as if the non-player characters are just
as alive as the player characters. In this section are a few different systems and
methods for acquiring and using experience points. Some systems give every item
on a player’s Character Sheet an experience point rating. Some of these systems
throw out the experience point system out entirely. Note that experience points in
The Path And The Way are measured using numbers. These should be the only
numbers a player or GM should ever have to deal with on their Character
Sheet(s).
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The Standard Experience Point System – This is the experience point system
The Path And The Way manual assumes you are using. Don’t worry if you
aren’t, the sections following this one will explain themselves in enough
detail that converting to them shouldn’t be much of a problem. In this
system every ability or skill a character uses has an experience rating
associated with it. Use during role-play will grow these ratings on an
individual basis for every attribute or ability. A character who uses their
Mind Path more often than their Body Path will therefore see their Mind
Path grow in power quicker.
Optional First Path Dot Experience Rating – Normally the experience
of gaining the first dot in a Path is role-played, as it is a life
changing event that has nothing to do with the previous
experiences of character – it is simply a product of their
willingness to believe and their ability to put in the effort.
However, if you as a GM or player are having trouble coming up
with a proper way to role-play Path evolution, you may simply opt
to include this rating with your character. This means that once the
proper amount of experience has been acquired a character will
naturally gain their first Path dot and can begin using their new
Path like any other character.
The General Experience Point System – This system utilizes a single
experience point rating, creating a sort of experience point pool. The
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experience points in this pool are used almost like money to “buy” dots or
higher ratings. Certain things will cost more experience to raise, sapping
more experience from this pool. Therefore, to raise a rating for a certain
ability a player or GM might need more experience in their experience
pool. Every time experience from the pool is used that amount of
experience is subtracted from the experience pool’s total. For example,
buying the next dot in a Path might cost a player 5 experience points, and
buying the next dot for an Applied Attribute might cost a player 3
experience points. The experience points would be given out on a per
session basis by the GM based on how well the players did that session –
however many the GM wishes to give out, based on how quickly they
want character’s to grow in ability. The players could also receive bonus
experience points from special circumstances (like completing a story
line).
The Use Of Experience To Acquire Levels – Under this system, a player’s
character would have an overall experience level. A character could be
referred to as a Level 1 character, a Level 2 character, and so on. Each
level requires a certain amount of experience to reach. Simply existing
would mean the character was at Level 0. Level 0 would therefore require
no experience. Level 1 might require 100 experience points. Like The
General Experience Point System, this system utilizes a single
experience point rating. When that rating reaches 100 a character would be
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a Level 1 character and all or most of their statistical ratings and
measurements (their stats) would increase by a certain amount. When a
character has enough experience to reach Level 2 the character’s stats
would again go up by a certain amount. In this system a character acquires
experience every time a certain task or “mission” assigned to them by the
GM, or a GM controlled character, is completed. An example would be
the completion of a singular story line, or the successful carrying out of an
operation that will lead to the furtherance of the player character’s goals.
A Modified Level System – Instead of giving a character an increase in
certain stats once a level is reached a GM can take the option of
giving their players dots. Every single rating and measurement in
The Path And The Way uses dots instead of numbers (with the one
exception being the experience rating). When a character reaches
Level 1, for example, they can be given 3 dots. These dots can,
however, only be used to increase certain attributes. The attributes
that can be raised, a Path, a personality type, an attribute, etc., will
change from level to level. At Level 1 a character may not be able
to gain a new Path dot but they can gain a new Rational or
Irrational dot. At Level 3 a character may get a new Path dot but
they may be unable to gain a new Rational or Irrational dot.
The Limited Experience System – This system is for GMs who really know
what they’re doing. As stated before, experience points are simply a
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measurement of how much a character would have learned throughout the
course of doing what they do. The point system is meant to create a
balance between the players and to prevent player jealousy (when one
player becomes upset that another player’s character has become so much
more powerful than their own). The point system is also there to force
players to try and accomplish goals and use their abilities in the roleplaying world before their character can learn anything new. A roleplaying group with familiarity playing this game can, if they so desire, bypass most or all of the experience point system. Skills, abilities, traits, etc.,
would instead be grown with time and in depth role-playing, not
experience points. This means that growing a Path, for example, would be
strictly based on the personality of a character, how often they use their
Path, and how they are trying to get better at it. Under this system a Mind
Path character that is a scientist could have an easier time increasing their
Mind Path abilities than an aircraft pilot, though both have Rational
personality types – though their might be exceptions. Obviously someone
who uses their Path more often is likely to grow in it sooner, unless of
course the other person trying to grow in that same Path has higher
personality and Confidence ratings. A character that is actively seeking to
reach the next level of Path ability might get their quicker than others,
unless of course that character is going about it completely wrong. Any
sort of growth undertaken using this system has to be role-played. The
evolution of a character in a campaign universe using this system is very
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dependant upon how a character interacts with that universe. How growth
takes place, how long it takes, and in what form that growth will come is a
tricky balance between time, the personality of a character, what actions a
character takes, and what it is a character is getting better at. And please
remember that growth should take time. If a character is allowed to
become too powerful too quickly they can upset the whole balance of a
campaign. But, of course, a GM can intend for that to happen. Also
remember to try and keep player jealousy down. Under this system one
player’s character can grow much faster than another’s if the GM is not
careful. A GM, as the absolute controller of their campaign and final word
on all things, can always put a character that is gaining power too fast in a
situation where their evolution will be slowed – the GM can then put a
slower growing character in a situation where they will develop faster.
Finally, this manual can only give suggestions on how to handle a limited
experience campaign. Because handling the evolution of a character in a
game using this system is very individual – not only individual to the
campaign but individual to every single character in the campaign – only
players and GMs willing to put a lot of role-playing work into the
campaign should ever do this.
Suggestions On How To Handle A Limited Experience Campaign –
These are some suggestions to give a GM trying The Limited
Experience System an idea of how to handle their campaign.
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Learning – Okay, so you’ve decided what experience system you’re using. Now
you want to know just how learning works. Well, use your common sense.
A character is unlikely to get any Science experience from a single
paragraph in a single textbook. But reading an entire text book would give
a character a big boost of Science skill. But even better than studying
something is doing something. A character who both reads and performs
an example scientific experiment will gain more knowledge than the
character that just tries things randomly or only reads. Throwing a couple
of darts at dart board won’t increase Finesse, but spending an hour every
day will. A character who throws darts at a board, shoots skeet, and plays
high-speed video games will gain even more Finesse.
Rolling Through A Campaign – Most of the time a player or GM won’t know how to
do the things their characters are doing. Hot wiring cars, firing guns, or building
bombs is child’s play compared to sneaking through a trapped building,
convincing someone to spare your life, or using a magic mirror to watch a person
a hundred miles away. So instead of trying to have a player come up with how
these things can be done, The Path And The Way substitutes a dice rolling system
based on a measurement of proficiency known as the dot rating. The dots on a
Character Sheet represent how good a player’s character is at doing things. Path
dots represent how good a character is at using their Path, Way dots measure how
good a character is at using their Way, Social Attribute dots measure how good a
character is at being social, etc., etc., etc. When a character is to use an ability, a
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player looks at how many dots their character has in that ability on their Character
Sheet. Generally speaking, each dot for an ability on the Character Sheet gives a
player 1 die to roll when that ability is being used. As an example, if a character
has to use their Rational rating, and that character has 7 dots filled in on the
Character Sheet for their Rational rating, the character’s controlling player will
have 7 dice to roll to successfully use their character’s Rational thinking
processes. But this is not always true. For example, when a character is attempting
to stop a power from being used on them in the manner described by the Using
Willpower To Automatically Stop An Attack section, the character only gets 1
die for every 2 dots of expanded temporary Willpower. Some things that have a
rating on a character sheet don’t actually use their associated rating at all when
determining the number of dice a controlling player or GM can use. An example
would be the use of a character’s Spirit Path Level 2 ability to enter a dream state.
Though a player controlling this character must have at least 2 dots filled in on
their Character Sheet under their Spirit Path to use the Spirit Path ability, they do
not actually roll their 2 Spirit Path dots to utilize it. Instead, the controlling player
will be rolling their character’s temporary Willpower – meaning that every dot
they have of temporary Willpower gives them 1 die to succeed using their Spirit
Path Level 2 ability. An ability will almost always tell you what you need to roll
to use it. If an ability or skill does not tell you what you need to do to use it,
assume that you roll the number of dots you have in it (if you have 5 dots in an
ability, roll 5 dice to utilize it). Generally speaking, the GM should keep a task as
simple as they can while being accurate to what a character is doing (proper task
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representation or task accuracy). Just rolling Agility for combat doesn’t make a
lot of sense (that is task inaccurate), especially when causing damage. But rolling
only Explosive Strength for combat doesn’t make a lot of sense either (that is also
inaccurate representation of the character’s task). Remember, a roll can be done
instead of role-playing while representing how well something is done (after all,
who wants to role-play every second of a hurdle race), or a roll can represent how
well a character is performing their task or action, or a roll is done to enable
specific things – like Way powers. One of the things a roll is especially good for
is adding randomness to an event. For example, if a hurdle race was only roleplayed and the GM declares that a player’s character hit a hurdle and fell over, the
player might get a little angry. But if the dice come up against a player and their
character falls over they have no one to blame but fate, a deficiency on their
character’s part (not enough dots for dice), or random chance.
Doing 2 Or More Things At Once: Splitting The Dice Pool – This is most
useful for combat (see the Combat section). When a character needs to do
2 or more things at once – and time is so dire that it has been broken up
into turns – that character may wish to “split” their die pool. What this
means is that for every full action taken a character’s normal dice pool is
cut in half, rounded down. This is due to their natural inability to do more
than one thing at a time. Note that dice may not be split for Willpower
Combat (when a character is in Willpower Combat that is all they can do).
Okay, so you’ve got to shoot one guy and work on a lock at the same time.
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Your character has 2 dots of Finesse, 1 dot of Armed Combat, a set of lock
picks, 3 dots in Perceptual Acuity, and 2 dots in Crime with the Focus
Physical Cracking. Since shooting someone falls under Armed Combat the
character must first roll their Armed Strike. Normally the character’s
Armed Strike is 3 dice (2 for their Finesse and 1 for their Armed Combat
rating). Cut in half and rounded down, the character now has 1 die to
succeed at their Armed Strike. The character normally gets 7 dice to pick a
lock (3 for their Perceptual Acuity, 2 for their Crime Learned Attribute
dots, and 2 extra dice for having the Physical Cracking Focus). But since
the character is splitting their dice they only get to roll 3 dice – 7 dice
divided by 2 then rounded down. So, on that round the character rolls their
Armed Strike with 1 die and their lock picking with 3 dice. But what if the
character wishes to kick the guy behind them at the same time? Possible
perhaps, but is your character capable. Dice are then halved one more time
(not dots). The character has no Unarmed Combat dots, so they are only
rolling their Agility (2 dots) for their Unarmed Strike. So now the
character is rolling their Armed Strike with .5 or ½ a die, their lock
picking with 1 die, and their Unarmed Strike with .5 dice (halved once
from 2, then halved again). Half a die cannot be rolled, thus the character
can no longer roll their Armed or Unarmed Strike. Whenever a character’s
dice pool falls below 1 for an action, that action cannot be undertaken.
Thus it is useless for this character to shoot, kick, and pick a lock at the
same time. Difficulties are always the same. GMs, it is up to you as to how
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far you want to take this. Picking a lock with one hand and shooting a gun
with the other is fairly simple. But picking a lock with one hand and
throwing someone with the other is usually something only a strong
person could accomplish. As GM, you decide if a character is capable of
splitting their dice pool, based on the actions they wish to take. For
example, a character could not pick a lock and run away at the same time.
Rolling In Conjunction – This section explains what is rolled with what to
achieve what a character is trying to achieve.
Personality Type – rolled with Learned Attributes to figure something
out.
Special Circumstances And Rolling Dice – This section of the manual tries to
give a GM an idea of what characters should roll in special circumstances,
such as when they are trying to sneak through a house undetected.
Botches – What is a botch and how a botch works.
Overwhelming Successes – What an overwhelming success is and how it works.
Difficulty – How difficulty is determined and what it means.