draining negative and filling with positive
Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2016 2:20 pm
I was rereading page 120's Negative Chi Skills, specifically 1. Negative Chi Control. Strangely, the text in the title actually occurs twice, following a slightly different introduction.
Sentence 2: "It also works in reverse,"
Sentence 5: "This process also works in reverse,"
It's odd repetition. Does it mean the same thing or refer to different stuff? "It" in sentence 2 must refer to sentence 1, while "This process" in sentence 5 must refer to sentences 3/4.
Sentence 1 is "The character can flush the normal, positive, Chi out of the body, and replace it with negative chi."
Sentences 3/4 are "This takes two melee rounds (30 seconds); one to flush, and one to fill. During the transition the character cannot use any chi skills."
I don't think it's describing separate at all. Sentence 2 is essentially saying, by describing a reverse, approximately this: "The character can flush the abnormal, negative, Chi out of the body, and replace it with positive chi."
Sentences 3/4 don't describe a new process, just the rules of the processes outlined in 1/2, the time it takes and the skill use restriction.
It makes no mention of needing to have skills like Dark Chi (to refill with negative) or Dragon Chi (to refill with positive) and the filling process appears to take 1 melee round without specifying an amount, even though Dark Chi can only channel a limited amount per melee round based on environment.
An average person with 10 negative chi, for example, would normally take over 3 rounds it using Dark Chi in a shuttered building on a dark night (3 per round) to restore back to full, but I get the impression that I could use Negative Chi Control with 10 positive chi to go from 10 positive to 0 in 1 melee and then 0 to 10 negative in the next melee.
It describes this 2 melee process as "the transition" but still doesn't make clear where the positive chi goes or where the negative chi comes from (or when you reverse, where the negative chi goes and where the positive chi comes from) so I'm led to assume that the power somehow allows you to convert the chi on a 1 to 1 basis back and forth... but it doesn't explicitly say that so I'm not sure.
I'm also not sure what happens to the ability to get back to positive if you run out of negative chi.
IE guy with One Finger Chi and 10 positive chi, spends 2 melees getting 10 negative chi, then spends it all in a massive 30 SDC blast. Even if I had Dark Chi I couldn't use it now, because you can't tap negative chi if you reach zero chi...
So there's Chi Relaxation, but would I need to use that and meditate 1 hour to get to full negative chi and then convert that into positive chi? So basically I'd need to wait a full hour before I could begin healing again?
In other systems where you heal on a daily basis it's not a big deal but (page 15) when you heal 5 SDC per hour, that could be sort of a big deal.
The introduction to Negative Chi Skills on 120 talks about the disadvantages of being filled with negative chi. On placement, this appears to be focused on voluntarily doing so.
It mentions "the only cure is to destroy all the negative chi and replace it with at least a point of positive chi". This in the context of being unconscious (HP below 0) and "unable to flush" because the use of Negative Chi Control is a conscious skill.
I think the other half of that is you are also 'unable to fill' while unconscious. It doesn't say that, but I figure you need to be conscious to use ANY skill.
Destroying negative and replacing with positive via outside help would be another Chi Master using Chi Healing (Chi-atsu) on page 119. This shows that it is not only possible to use this power to destroy negative chi put there without consent (when attacked by others) but also to destroy negative chi put there with consent by oneself (a negative chi master who fills up but then gets hurt).
Even though the power says "have been infected with negative chi" I believe that willingly changing your chi positive>negative is willig self-infection in the same way that spending positive chi is willing chi damage.
So basically Chi-atsu is a 'chi attack' whether the negative chi in you is your own doing or an enemy's.
You destroy negative chi regardless of its origin, so you not only save infected positives, but also save unconscious negatives from themself.
This wouldn't just be for helping unconscious guys, but also guys who happen to spend all their chi and get stuck at 0 (but negative) because if they can't meditate for an hour (perhaps they're being tortured and there is lots of interruptions, or they have an insanity preventing meditation)
The only problem with the "replace it with at least a point of positive Chi" statement on 120 is that I can't find any text under Chi-atsu stating you can actually move them from 0 to 1 with it. It gives an example of Kajo healing Bruno and while he spends 1 positive chi to eliminate the 2 negative chi infection, he doesn't put Bruno from 0 to 1. Instead, the chi he spends past that goes right to healing HP/SDC and giving a coma save bonus.
This seems to imply that "does heal the positive Chi so that natural healing (and treatment) can resume." (right before the example) simply means bringing it from negative to 0 but not actually restoring it positive.
Does the example need to be corrected? Can Chi-atsu move you from 0 to 1 so you can heal? Page 153 of Mystic China (under 'How can characters recover from Zero') implies this even though the Kajo/Bruno example seems to ignore this step.
Would it be put in on a 1 to 1 basis, if so?
Perhaps in the example, Kajo had limited Chi and wanted to stabilize the coma first. The coma save bonus only comes from what you spend on HP/SDC ("three things all at once)", not on what you spend to destroy negative. So perhaps points you spend to restore positive work the same way, they don't restore the coma save.
In that sense, you need to destroy negative to be able to spend points to get the coma save, so it's a necessity, but bringing chi above 0 is not? The priority I guess to get them out of the coma (avoid death, become conscious) and then worry about spending chi on regaining chi for longer-term healing.
Sentence 2: "It also works in reverse,"
Sentence 5: "This process also works in reverse,"
It's odd repetition. Does it mean the same thing or refer to different stuff? "It" in sentence 2 must refer to sentence 1, while "This process" in sentence 5 must refer to sentences 3/4.
Sentence 1 is "The character can flush the normal, positive, Chi out of the body, and replace it with negative chi."
Sentences 3/4 are "This takes two melee rounds (30 seconds); one to flush, and one to fill. During the transition the character cannot use any chi skills."
I don't think it's describing separate at all. Sentence 2 is essentially saying, by describing a reverse, approximately this: "The character can flush the abnormal, negative, Chi out of the body, and replace it with positive chi."
Sentences 3/4 don't describe a new process, just the rules of the processes outlined in 1/2, the time it takes and the skill use restriction.
It makes no mention of needing to have skills like Dark Chi (to refill with negative) or Dragon Chi (to refill with positive) and the filling process appears to take 1 melee round without specifying an amount, even though Dark Chi can only channel a limited amount per melee round based on environment.
An average person with 10 negative chi, for example, would normally take over 3 rounds it using Dark Chi in a shuttered building on a dark night (3 per round) to restore back to full, but I get the impression that I could use Negative Chi Control with 10 positive chi to go from 10 positive to 0 in 1 melee and then 0 to 10 negative in the next melee.
It describes this 2 melee process as "the transition" but still doesn't make clear where the positive chi goes or where the negative chi comes from (or when you reverse, where the negative chi goes and where the positive chi comes from) so I'm led to assume that the power somehow allows you to convert the chi on a 1 to 1 basis back and forth... but it doesn't explicitly say that so I'm not sure.
I'm also not sure what happens to the ability to get back to positive if you run out of negative chi.
IE guy with One Finger Chi and 10 positive chi, spends 2 melees getting 10 negative chi, then spends it all in a massive 30 SDC blast. Even if I had Dark Chi I couldn't use it now, because you can't tap negative chi if you reach zero chi...
So there's Chi Relaxation, but would I need to use that and meditate 1 hour to get to full negative chi and then convert that into positive chi? So basically I'd need to wait a full hour before I could begin healing again?
In other systems where you heal on a daily basis it's not a big deal but (page 15) when you heal 5 SDC per hour, that could be sort of a big deal.
The introduction to Negative Chi Skills on 120 talks about the disadvantages of being filled with negative chi. On placement, this appears to be focused on voluntarily doing so.
It mentions "the only cure is to destroy all the negative chi and replace it with at least a point of positive chi". This in the context of being unconscious (HP below 0) and "unable to flush" because the use of Negative Chi Control is a conscious skill.
I think the other half of that is you are also 'unable to fill' while unconscious. It doesn't say that, but I figure you need to be conscious to use ANY skill.
Destroying negative and replacing with positive via outside help would be another Chi Master using Chi Healing (Chi-atsu) on page 119. This shows that it is not only possible to use this power to destroy negative chi put there without consent (when attacked by others) but also to destroy negative chi put there with consent by oneself (a negative chi master who fills up but then gets hurt).
Even though the power says "have been infected with negative chi" I believe that willingly changing your chi positive>negative is willig self-infection in the same way that spending positive chi is willing chi damage.
So basically Chi-atsu is a 'chi attack' whether the negative chi in you is your own doing or an enemy's.
You destroy negative chi regardless of its origin, so you not only save infected positives, but also save unconscious negatives from themself.
This wouldn't just be for helping unconscious guys, but also guys who happen to spend all their chi and get stuck at 0 (but negative) because if they can't meditate for an hour (perhaps they're being tortured and there is lots of interruptions, or they have an insanity preventing meditation)
The only problem with the "replace it with at least a point of positive Chi" statement on 120 is that I can't find any text under Chi-atsu stating you can actually move them from 0 to 1 with it. It gives an example of Kajo healing Bruno and while he spends 1 positive chi to eliminate the 2 negative chi infection, he doesn't put Bruno from 0 to 1. Instead, the chi he spends past that goes right to healing HP/SDC and giving a coma save bonus.
This seems to imply that "does heal the positive Chi so that natural healing (and treatment) can resume." (right before the example) simply means bringing it from negative to 0 but not actually restoring it positive.
Does the example need to be corrected? Can Chi-atsu move you from 0 to 1 so you can heal? Page 153 of Mystic China (under 'How can characters recover from Zero') implies this even though the Kajo/Bruno example seems to ignore this step.
Would it be put in on a 1 to 1 basis, if so?
Perhaps in the example, Kajo had limited Chi and wanted to stabilize the coma first. The coma save bonus only comes from what you spend on HP/SDC ("three things all at once)", not on what you spend to destroy negative. So perhaps points you spend to restore positive work the same way, they don't restore the coma save.
In that sense, you need to destroy negative to be able to spend points to get the coma save, so it's a necessity, but bringing chi above 0 is not? The priority I guess to get them out of the coma (avoid death, become conscious) and then worry about spending chi on regaining chi for longer-term healing.