Can anyone explain Chi to me?

[PalladiumBrony]

I notice that in the Mystic China book, a lot of references are made to "positive" and "negative" Chi, especially in the context of certain powers requiring one or the other. But nowhere in any book I've been able to find is there a paragraph that lays out exactly how Chi works. Is "Positive" Chi good/Yang while negative Chi is evil/Yin? And yes I know that's an incredible simplification of an absurdly complex Taoist philosophy. Are particular places often charged with one or the other? Can a Chi user recharge themselves with both, just one, or whatever their location has an excess of? Does being highly charged with one form of Chi alter the user (a person full of negative Chi will be wrathful and evil while a person full of positive Chi will be peaceful and benevolent and nonviolent)? Curse Palladium and their tendency to just expect you to magically understand concepts they barely explain!

[Curbludgeon]

Do you have access to Ninjas & Superspies? Chi is given a little more description therein. Yin and Yang are equated in the game with Negative and Positive Chi, respectively, albeit arguably less as evil/good than darkness/light, moon/sun, female/male, infernal/celestial, disease/healing, (underground/graveyards/desolate places)/natural splendor, etc. In order for a character to make use of Chi they generally need knowledge of a Chi Mastery Ability or Chi Kata, and while some of the latter can make use of whatever's available a specifically Negative ability is necessary in order to change out a person's Positive Chi for Negative.

[drewkitty ~..~]

IA close analogy would be that Chi is much like "The Force" from a popular franchise.

How does it differ from IS points and PPE...
Where IS points is derived solely from the power of the char's mind. Pulling energy out of the ambient Magic flows.
And PPE being the derived interaction between the the character's soul and Body.
Chi is Derived from the interaction between the character's Spirit and Body.

In scientific terms it could be thought of like this. It is the power of the mind-body interface. If the person is depressed, then their chi is low, and they feel crummy (bad). Or if they are healing their chi would be low because the body is using it to heal.

Or Like how when you are mad and just want to hurt someone, you tend to get a spike in feeling powerful. That would be like using negative Chi.
"The force gathers darkly around a creature that is about to kill" to quote (closely) the same franchise.

But using Chi is all about focus. This is why it is mostly Martial Arts practionaers that discover how the tap into the use of chi. Because they have to be focused to perform their arts.

Yin-Yang, also has Male-Female meaning to the Concept. So assigning Good and Bad to them is going too far. It is sort of like trying to say red lights are bad and green lights are good, in traffic signals.
It is more apt to say that +chi is about good health and -chi is about death or bad health.

side note:Things get weird when you are talking about demons and undead (both of which are described as -chi beings) from the other PB games and how they can be killed or exercised. Because the they might have a specific way they have to be killed. But if you get rid of all their -chi when they don't have a physical form, you have destroyed them.

According to the texts..
+chi places: above ground, in forests, waterfalls, as a few examples of Places with a flow of + chi in ascending order.
-chi places: grave yards, tunnels, caves, places of sickness.

The text says that unless the char has a special power that let the chi user to have both + & - chi then they can only have one to the other in them at one time.

Typically the body will recharge itself with +chi over night with a full night's sleep.
A user can, through meditation, charge up from the chi flow around them.
Through a Martial Arts Technique a chi user can pull the weaker chi out of a dominant flow of the other.

How the chi user seams to others while charged....the texts does not say.

Yep, that is PB...not getting into the details. But then again N&S is not their cash cow that says MRUEOOoo.

[Crimson Dynamo]

I notice that in the Mystic China book, a lot of references are made to "positive" and "negative" Chi, especially in the context of certain powers requiring one or the other. But nowhere in any book I've been able to find is there a paragraph that lays out exactly how Chi works. Is "Positive" Chi good/Yang while negative Chi is evil/Yin? And yes I know that's an incredible simplification of an absurdly complex Taoist philosophy. Are particular places often charged with one or the other? Can a Chi user recharge themselves with both, just one, or whatever their location has an excess of? Does being highly charged with one form of Chi alter the user (a person full of negative Chi will be wrathful and evil while a person full of positive Chi will be peaceful and benevolent and nonviolent)? Curse Palladium and their tendency to just expect you to magically understand concepts they barely explain!

Honestly, it's just a flowery philosophical take on I.S.P. with some minor P.P.E. gameplay elements (only in that you can draw it from your surroundings).

It's really that simple.

[green.nova343]

Chi is a more Eastern analog to PPE. It flows in "lines" like PPE (& probably in very similar patterns), but even a general area can have a flow of Chi. It's also "charged" either positive or negative (think of it as protons & electrons, with PPE being neutrons). Chi Mages can also convert PPE to Chi & vice versa (1:6 ratio). Western mages can learn Chi spells, but they have issues with it.

Basically, get N&SS if you can, it explains it better.

[Warmaster40k]

As far as I understand it there are 4 great energies of the megaverse ; PPE, ISP, Chi, and BIO-E. Despite what the others say, ISP and Chi have more in common than PPE and Chi.
PPE is the most common, and is probably the most varied, and comes from the cosmos it self. While ISP is derived from the mind of a psychic, and in some regions channeled by the mind.
Chi though is derived from the body and focus. Though it also comes from the cosmos. But it not PPE, PPE is flows from Ley Lines and forms Nexus Points. PPE is also the make up of the soul, as every living thing has it and as the person ages their PPE is used up.
Chi, flows, but it's more like water, is forms and puddles in areas and possess a polarity. Both positive and negative. Humans, living creatures are mostly positive Chi beings. Things of Darkenss and demons are negative Chi. They are similar but not the same.
Then we have the fourth energy, Bio-E. This stuff is wierd, and essentially is the power of the Flesh, and Life it self. It slowly accumulates in life forms slowly, and is channeled in a mostly subconscious manner, to survive environmental pressures. This is the power of evolution, sometimes surges of this energy is made available, leading to being with strange powers or new forms of life. Few have figured out how to use it, but what is known is that a rare fith form known as Temporal Energy can affect it.