ka point recovery (and others)

[prophet118]

ok

we know how you gain character points

we know ( in theory) how to regain forc.... err fate points :P

how bout ka points, and do they have any uses we may not immediately be aware of?

the book talks about people pooling points, but i dont recall it given concrete examples

[Jerry D. Grayson]

ok

we know how you gain character points

we know ( in theory) how to regain forc.... err fate points :P

how bout ka points, and do they have any uses we may not immediately be aware of?

the book talks about people pooling points, but i dont recall it given concrete examples
PAGE 62


Ka Pool
Ka is the term for the very essence of the universe. This energy manifests in all things in the cosmos and can be focused by those few aware of it. Some beings are more attuned than others to the Ka, using it for extraordinary effects – and that includes your super heroic character, whether she is aware of it or not. All things in the universe are truly energy and, if a person is adept at manipulating that energy, nothing is impossible.
Your character starts the game with a pool of points that can be use to affect the outcome of dice rolls or damage taken, much like character or fate points. The maximum amount of Ka your character may have in her Pool is equal to double her Presence Attribute, and it naturally regenerates at a rate of 2 points per day. In addition, your character’s Archetype allows her to regenerate Ka when she fulfills her chosen role in the universe.
Your character may take Powers that require the use of Ka to activate them, or she may have Powers that strengthen or manipulate Ka outright. (More is discussed on this in the Powers Section.) Regardless, your Godsend character can use Ka for a variety of things outside of those other Powers:
• Two points of Ka may be spent to receive the benefits of a character point die roll addition, and an unlimited amount of Ka may be spent in this way as long as you possess them. The character point(s) must be spent at the time of purchase and may not be saved. Ka may not be spent to buy character points for character advancement.
• Six Ka points may be spent to buy one fate point. The fate point must be used at the time of purchase; it cannot be saved for later use.
• One Ka point will give a +1 to Any one die roll, including damage, up to a maximum of +3.
• One point of Ka will negate four points of damage. An unlimited amount of Ka can be spent in this fashion with the only limit being the amount of Ka the character possess.
• Points can be transferred to another character at a rate of two per Action in combat, or an unlimited amount outside of combat. Characters cannot store Ka over their normal maximum; any additional Ka your character receives over her normal limit is lost.
• Three points will give you one extra Action for one round of combat.


Example: Renee’s character Avalanche is trying to catch villains that are driving away in a car. She commandeers a vehicle and starts after the culprits. To catch them while dodging through the heavy traffic she must make a piloting roll, difficulty 18. Her total piloting Skill is 3D. Renee doesn’t think that she’ll make the roll with such a mediocre skill level, so she spends 6 points from her Ka pool to buy 3 character points, raising her total to 6D. She rolls and hopes for the best.


Ka Gestalt
Characters can combine their Ka pools by linking together through physical contact – Angelos, in particular, use this ability to great effect. One character per combat round now has access to the combined Ka reservoir. Others combined in the gestalt do not have access to their Ka energy while involved. When they separate, the remaining Ka is distributed evenly among them.


Example: Three badly injured heroes decided to pool their strength to help one of their number assure she hits with an Energy Blast. One has 4 Ka remaining, one has 2, and another, the blaster, has 7. They link together for a total pool of 13. The blaster uses ten of the thirteen points to boost her skill roll by +5D, assuring she hits. They survive the encounter and separate, desperate to go home and rest. Since there are only three points left, each of them gets back one point. If there had only been two points left, they could have chosen which two to give the points to.

[Temprus]

Man, Attis beat me to it. I bet he has a digital copy handy though, I was having to type it. :)

[prophet118]

haha, cool... .now that you've posted it, im starting to remember it..lol

[Jerry D. Grayson]

The perks of being the creator;)

[prophet118]

among other perks..lol

[Jerry D. Grayson]

Oh, and btw in the GODSEND Agenda: Mythos supplement there will be rules for gaining additional Ka points beyond what you start with after character creation.

[Temprus]

Oh, and btw in the GODSEND Agenda: Mythos supplement there will be rules for gaining additional Ka points beyond what you start with after character creation.

Good, because Eagle needs Ka badly! :rolleyes:

[prophet118]

Oh, and btw in the GODSEND Agenda: Mythos supplement there will be rules for gaining additional Ka points beyond what you start with after character creation.


that'd be nice, i think the only option right now, is to be an Elohim..lol

theres really no option for "true" human mages..lol

sure, yeh i know, take a few powers and have em with all the magic flaws... but, see the real way to do magic (in my mind) is ka manip..lol

[Temprus]

that'd be nice, i think the only option right now, is to be an Elohim..lol

theres really no option for "true" human mages..lol

sure, yeh i know, take a few powers and have em with all the magic flaws... but, see the real way to do magic (in my mind) is ka manip..lol

Ka Man. is sweet but if you blow thru your ka too quick, you are screwed if you don't have back up abilities. Last session, I used 10 Ka which is my rate of Ka returned each day. Our Atlantean used up all (or almost all) of her Ka. Great if the next adventure is a few days later in game time, bad if it starts where the last one ended.

[prophet118]

true, course ka manip is also the single most useful, and likely to be abused power...lol

a bit more options ka wise would still be nice..

ka isnt used a whole lot..lol

[Jerry D. Grayson]

true, course ka manip is also the single most useful, and likely to be abused power...lol

a bit more options ka wise would still be nice..

ka isnt used a whole lot..lol
Do you mean Ka power wise, or Ka point wise? What type of options would you like to see?

[prophet118]

well, obviously not more useful things for ka manip to do... as is its verging on being overly powerful..lol

however what keeps people from taking it, is that there just arent enough options with Ka itself


• Two points of Ka may be spent to receive the benefits of a character point die roll addition, and an unlimited amount of Ka may be spent in this way as long as you possess them. The character point(s) must be spent at the time of purchase and may not be saved. Ka may not be spent to buy character points for character advancement.
• Six Ka points may be spent to buy one fate point. The fate point must be used at the time of purchase; it cannot be saved for later use.
• One Ka point will give a +1 to Any one die roll, including damage, up to a maximum of +3.
• One point of Ka will negate four points of damage. An unlimited amount of Ka can be spent in this fashion with the only limit being the amount of Ka the character possess.
• Points can be transferred to another character at a rate of two per Action in combat, or an unlimited amount outside of combat. Characters cannot store Ka over their normal maximum; any additional Ka your character receives over her normal limit is lost.
• Three points will give you one extra Action for one round of combat.

yes we have those options, but im not meaning give us more options to spend Ka, i mean, more powers that use Ka... as is i dont recall that many... Time Manip, and Ka Manip are the two that jump out at me

now i havent re-read my playtest version of mythos in a while, so you may have some options in there that im missing

but it just seems to me that having 2 powers that require ka expensepretty much means that the people who take those powers, really need to have alot of ka at their disposal, and if they arent Elohim, that doesnt seem likely to happen..lol

[Jerry D. Grayson]

Well, obviously not more useful things for Ka Manipulation to do... as is its verging on being overly powerful...lol
However what keeps people from taking it, is that there just aren’t enough options with Ka itself

I’m not sure I understand the statement. Are you saying there aren’t many things that you can do with Ka or the Ka Manipulation power? Ka points are used like Hero points in DC Heroes, or Blood points in Vampire. The help augment a player’s roll and negate damage during the game. Just think of them as a cheaper less powerful renewable version of Character points. Ka allows a character to do truly super heroic actions and shrug off of damage because of “luck”
In my game Ka is used all the time, in fact a lot of the characters don’t seem to have enough because they use it so fast.
Think of raw Ka energy as if it was the FORCE; if you can figure out how to us and manipulate it you have mastery over the fabric of the universe.
Ka Manipulation is supposed to be powerful…I take that back ITS SUPPOSED TO BE EXTREMLY POWERFUL!!! That’s the reason why it cost so much to buy (11 pts per rank plus its cost Ka every time you want to choose a power)



yes we have those options, but I’m not meaning give us more options to spend Ka, I mean, more powers that use Ka... as is I don’t recall that many... Time Manipulation and Ka Manipulation are the two that jump out at me
If you want to spend Ka on powers you could always take the Limitation that Cost Ka to Activate(page 56). The reason those two powers use Ka is because they are potentially Earth (and game) shattering powers. Just imagine if you could go back in time at will. :eek:
Adding the Cost Ka to Activate limitation is a great way of creating a “wizard” with magical spells...just change the name of Ka the Mana and boom instant magic.



But it just seems to me that having 2 powers that require ka expense pretty much means that the people who take those powers, really need to have a lot of ka at their disposal, and if they aren’t Elohim, that doesn’t seem likely to happen…lol
Normal people can buy the Ka Efficient advantage and have just as much Ka as any Elohim. Elohim get a price break because they understand how to manipulate Ka the best but this wouldn’t stop anyone from having as much if not more Ka points than an Elohim, just a bit more expensive.
Another Way of gaining more Ka using the normal rules is to do a Ka gestalt where everyone pools their Ka for a common purpose.

[prophet118]

i was with you up til you claim anyone can buy ka efficient, this time the book disagrees with you

its in the elohim section, and as far as i know only mentioned there

[Jerry D. Grayson]

i was with you up til you claim anyone can buy ka efficient, this time the book disagrees with you

its in the elohim section, and as far as i know only mentioned there

Lol, ok I see the confusion.
On page 21 there is an Advantage called Efficient KA
On page 209 the same advantage is listed but with a cost break.
Anyone can have Efficient KA, Elohim are just more inclined to have this advantage.

[prophet118]

i swear it wasnt in advntages before..lol

[Jerry D. Grayson]

LOL...I have the same problem sometimes, and I wrote the book :p

[prophet118]

hah, well ok... so efficient ka gives +2

i saw there was a rank 2 version as well


will mythos contain more ways to get ka?..lol

[Jerry D. Grayson]

There are three ranks of Efficient Ka you can buy (check page 21-22)

Rank One gives you +2 Ka
Rank Two gives +4, and Rank Three gives +8 Ka.
The best combo for having a lot of Ka is Efficient Ka and a high Presence attribute. The reason for Presence is because you use the force of your will alone to manipulate/dominate the elemental forces of the universe.

If you have a normal human Presence (2D) you will not be able to effectively manipulate Ka. If you notice most Elohim and Atlanteans have very high Presence attributes.
To learn more about Ka and its uses check pages 5, 21-22, 62, and 208. That should help you better grog Ka and what it is.
Essentially ALL the powers in the book are a manifestation of Ka energy. Some techniques are just a bit more difficult to learn than others.

[Jerry D. Grayson]

Other ways of getting Ka is Orichalcum.

Orichalcum metal stores Ka energy. Depending on the rank of the Orichalcum it can store anywhere from 5 to 40 points of Ka. The metal is very rare and sought after and only Atlanteans know of large deposits.

[prophet118]

There are three ranks of Efficient Ka you can buy (check page 21-22)

Rank One gives you +2 Ka
Rank Two gives +4, and Rank Three gives +8 Ka.
The best combo for having a lot of Ka is Efficient Ka and a high Presence attribute. The reason for Presence is because you use the force of your will alone to manipulate/dominate the elemental forces of the universe.

If you have a normal human Presence (2D) you will not be able to effectively manipulate Ka. If you notice most Elohim and Atlanteans have very high Presence attributes.
To learn more about Ka and its uses check pages 5, 21-22, 62, and 208. That should help you better grog Ka and what it is.
Essentially ALL the powers in the book are a manifestation of Ka energy. Some techniques are just a bit more difficult to learn than others.


well... and that presence is the score used for ka...so presence is a doubly important score then.

so far everything checks out..lol

although ive noticed something odd that i think i need explained to me... Hyperion (page 272) in the book has like 7d of presence, but only has 6 ka points.... i didnt see anything blatant that would make his ka less, im missing something arent i?

[prophet118]

Other ways of getting Ka is Orichalcum.

Orichalcum metal stores Ka energy. Depending on the rank of the Orichalcum it can store anywhere from 5 to 40 points of Ka. The metal is very rare and sought after and only Atlanteans know of large deposits.

yeh im not quite sure if im ever going to be at a point where i can introduce that stuff... right now im having a hard time just getting the players to stop trying to kill each other :(

[Jerry D. Grayson]

well... and that presence is the score used for ka...so presence is a doubly important score then.
Presence is a very important attribute.



although ive noticed something odd that i think i need explained to me... Hyperion (page 272) in the book has like 7d of presence, but only has 6 ka points.... i didnt see anything blatant that would make his ka less, im missing something arent i? You aren’t missing anything. He should have 14 Ka points. This is a typo. Thanks for catching that.

[prophet118]

sample chimerean (tiamat) page 177 (presence 4d, ka 6)
Naderra page 188 (presence 3d ka 18)
Coutl page 189 (same as above)
Caspian page 190 (same as above)

the power elite
all of the are off... anywhere from 2-4 points more than they should


theres probably others, but its hard to go through em


just spotting some stuff, thats all, time to re-read the mythos book with the same vigor

[prophet118]

Ka Man. is sweet but if you blow thru your ka too quick, you are screwed if you don't have back up abilities. Last session, I used 10 Ka which is my rate of Ka returned each day. Our Atlantean used up all (or almost all) of her Ka. Great if the next adventure is a few days later in game time, bad if it starts where the last one ended.


wait... how do you have a ka regen of 10... it says it naturally comes back at 2 per day.... sure your archetype might allow for the other 8 points...


or was there yet another advantage im missing :P

[Jerry D. Grayson]

sample chimerean (tiamat) page 177 (presence 4d, ka 6)
Naderra page 188 (presence 3d ka 18)
Coutl page 189 (same as above)
Caspian page 190 (same as above)

The power elite
all of the are off... anywhere from 2-4 points more than they should

just spotting some stuff, thats all, time to re-read the mythos book with the same vigor
Tiamat should have 8 Ka
Naderra is wrong, she should have 16 Ka (6 normally and 10 from her Orichalcum bow)
Coutl is wrong, he should have Ka Efficient rank 3 and a 4D Presence attribute giving him 16 ka points
Caspian is wrong and should have 6
The Power Elite should all have double their Presence in Ka.
I think the problem here is that some of the stats were cut-n-paste jobs and didn’t get corrected. Thanks for the observation


wait... how do you have a ka regen of 10... it says it naturally comes back at 2 per day.... sure your archetype might allow for the other 8 points...

or was there yet another advantage im missing :P
Rank three of Efficient Ka allows you to regenerate an additional 8 points of Ka per day

[prophet118]

a ha... see i did miss something, techncally..lol

[Temprus]

Our Atlantean used up all (or almost all) of her Ka. Great if the next adventure is a few days later in game time, bad if it starts where the last one ended.

Self-fulfilling prophecy. Sigh. :D At least Eagle still has a few Ka left (and other as useful powers). I wish I had kept Extra Body Points during the redesign or I would not have had to blow most of my Ka on damage reduction. Sadly our opponents blew all their Ka on the same so I can't even switch to Ka Vampirism so I could get some back.

Ack, I just realized I blew my Ka for no reason, I Enhanced Eagle's Physique score just before the mad flamer attacked, I could have just let the extra body I forgot to add eat it up. Double Sigh! At least I will have it for the big baddy next session.