Question: What does Five-Cycle Conjunction actually do, in terms of mechanics? Does it allow you to roll your total numbers of boons from another purview where possible, or is it mainly a visual effect?
Nope. It does nothing. Like, literally nothing. There's an old post about it here - basically, the only thing it does is pretend that some of your boons are hybrids of two purviews, and the only reason that matters is that it defends against Yin-Yang Destruction, a different Taiyi boon that blocks boons from a single purview. We haven't gotten to rewriting the Shen and Taiyi, so unfortunately it still does what it did in the original books. Which, again, was basically nothing.
However, if you happen to be running a game right now that is using Taiyi, we would say that something along the lines of letting you count the boons in both purviews toward boon totals, when using our boons where boon totals matter, is a good place to start. We haven't tested that so we couldn't say if it's power-balanced or not, but you can always give it a spin and let us know!
Anyone who's playing a Shen and feeling like killing themselves because of the sheer schizophrenia of Taiyi (seriously, going from 'Boon that does nothing' to 'turn everything around you into plutonium' is so ridiculous it's not even funny) might consider this reworked Shen PSP by the horribly misnamed Terriblyuncreative: http://www.terriblyuncreative.com/scion/wuxing.htm
ReplyDeleteI have zero concept of mechanical balance, but I have a feeling this would have the Celestial Bureaucracy's seal of approval :)
Hey, we know that guy! :)
DeleteThe allocation of purviews to the elements seems rather arbitrary.
DeleteIt's a bit hard with the purviews to line things up so that they work within the 5 cycle idea, and so arbitrary allocation was going to happen if you wanted each element to have the same number of purviews. I've a different arrangement based on multiple cycles of 5, elemental, celestial, civilization, life, and fate (this is taking into account the new Thunder which I've been sorta trying to run with before but will be great having an actual purview on site to use. It also takes into account the Fate purviews and the idea of PSP too... for every element to have the same number of things, it's necessary!). Sharing it here in case you find it more to your liking!
DeleteWood
-Thunder
-Sky
-Justice
-Fertility
-Prophecy
Fire
-Fire
-Stars
-War
-Health
-Chaos
Earth
-Earth
-Sun
-Artistry
-Psychopomp
-Mystery
Metal
-Frost
-Moon
-Illusion
-Animal
-Magic
Water
-Water
-Darkness
-Guardian
-Death
-PSP
My knowledge of the Wu Xing isn't as good as I want it to be, but this is how I arrange it:
DeleteWood is the element of growth and vitality, sensuality and fecundity. It is the element of leaders and is associated with the wind. Hence, it has Fertility, Health, War and Sky.
Fire is the element of creativity and passion, of movement and restlessness, of joy and passion. Hence, it has Fire, Artistry, Psychopomp and Chaos.
Earth is the element of stability and protection. It is the element that represents the turning of the seasons. Hence, it has Earth, Guardian, Stars and Sun.
Metal is the element of stern judgement, of self-reliance and survival, of thunder, of reflection and the determination to make dreams into reality. Hence, it has Justice, Frost, Thunder and Illusion (I know that last one is stretching it, sorry).
Water is the element of stillness and endings, but also of change and innovation. Hence, it has Water, Darkness, Death and Moon.
They are so not perfect, but I like this arrangement. If anyone would like to correct any misunderstandings I have about the nature of the elements, feel free.
By the way, the reason I removed the Fate Purviews is because Mystery has no Boons and is hence useless, and the reason I got rid of animal is because it has the potential to be a problem child since you can buy multiple Animal Purviews.
Thank you for this tweak to Wu Xing accounting for the upcoming Sky split. Terriblyuncreative's Wu Xing was my biggest worry about the split, even though I will probably have no Shen players in my upcoming game. It'd still really bother me and inhibit any Shen NPCs that may show up.
DeleteOne comment is that wikipedia's Wu Xing lists various materials associated with each element. Supposedly darkness is part of Earth (but shadow is part of Water), storms are part of Water (but clouds and magnetism are part of Metal), stars are part of Fire (nothing star-related in Earth besides outer space)... but there's no citations for that chart or any explanations for why the elements would represent that. Also multiple interpretations, as you can see by the parenthesis.
Part of the problem is that some of the purviews can't be slotted into one of the elements without some compromise. However, it is better than what was written up in the book and works well with the practical concerns of the RPG.
DeleteRegardless, here is my partial list:
Wood
* Artistry
* Chaos
* Health
* Fertility
Health and Fertility are obvious choices for Wood. Artistry got in because Wood is strongly associated with birth. Chaos is much iffier, but I ended up tossing it in because Wood was looking anemic. Plus, it helps that Wood is kind of associated with spontaneity.
Fire
* Fire
* Sun
* Stars
* War
Fire is obvious. Both Sun and Stars fall under Fire because all three are strongly associated with yang. War is a stretch, but Fire is associated with passion and Chi You might've been a Flame Emperor.
Earth
* Earth
* Guardian
* Justice
Earth is obvious. Since Earth also represents order and stability, it picks up both Justice and Guardian.
Metal
* Frost
* Mystery
The iffiest element for me. Frost is a simple one, but Mystery got in because Metal is associated with intuition. Maybe toss in Prophecy, but that doesn't seem as though it'd fit.
Water
* Water
* Death
* Darkness
* Sky
Water is obvious. Death got in because Water is the end of the cycle that begins with Wood. Darkness can also fall under Earth, but I tossed it over here because I want it to counter-balance the light associations of Fire. Sky is iffy, since Water is technically associated with storms rather than all of the sky.
This has a lot of holes. I haven't the faintest clue where Illusion should fall, while a lot of the connections are very tenuous.
As for Animal, it should fall under all of the elements except for Earth - scaly animals to Wood, feathered animals to Fire, furred animals to Metal, and shelled animals to Water. Who knows what gets slugs, but Earth is out because it gets humans.
I sympathise with you on the Illusion issue.
DeleteI still have to ask how you're handling Mystery though...that Purview has no Boons, which would put a cramp on this entire PSP.
I only had the chance to skim the purview last night, so I kind of missed that.
DeleteLooking at my list, Illusion, Magic, Prophecy, and Psychopomp are still left out. I don't like War being put in Fire, but I'm not sure which of the other elements would be better. Similarly, I'm not confident about Chaos being in Wood. If anything, it should go to an anti-Earth, but since there is no anti-Earth, Wood is acceptable as Earth-suppressing.
The problem of Illusion has been mentioned. Psychopomp is problematic because it has no strong connections with the elements. Perhaps Wood since Wood is the element that expands and heads outwards. Magic and Prophecy could fall under the same element as purviews about Fate, which is similar to the will of Heaven. However, Heaven isn't limited to one of the elements, though a very, very tenuous case can be made for Metal based on the fact that the Heaven trigram is considered to be Metal-natured.
This leaves Metal with either three purviews or four counting Animal, which makes it anemic but not on its last legs with nothing but Frost.
This Purview literally saved by bacon as Storyteller. I now have a Shen player (a Scion of Nezha), and this is way better than saying "Oh, sorry, your PSP is so busted and schizophrenic I don't even know what it is supposed to represent." As Anon said, the elemental allocations may be a bit arbitrary at times, but otherwise I think it works splendidly. Would recommend it for anyone running a Shen character.
ReplyDeleteWhoa! The praise is appreciated. :)
ReplyDeleteThe allocation of Purviews was far from arbitrary - agree, disagree, move them around according to your own interpretation however you like, but here was my thought process going into it:
Magic, Mystery, and Prophecy get excluded completely - these ideas are resonant with the I Ching and the entire cycle of Fate in the first place and, like with the Me of the Annuna, are beyond the scope of this PSP.
With the Fate Purviews out of the way, we're left with exactly twenty - conveniently enough, four for each element.
WOOD symbolizes the beginning of life, sensuality, fecundity, growth, and expansive energy - as such, Animal, Fertility, and Health, being the most life-centered, seemed to be the most obvious choices here.
FIRE gets the literal element of Fire. Its restlessness, impulsivity, and dynamism, as well as the fact that its excess can burn seems to represent Chaos to me.
EARTH is associated with patience, practicality, stability, and nurturing, constant energy. The Earth Purview is a no-brainer here, but I understand why Sun and Star might seem unconventional - even though they're pretty distant ideas from the Earth, what is more stable and constant than the rising and setting of the sun and the rotation of the stars?
METAL is associated with rigidity, persistence, strength, and determination - for want of a physical element that isn't already covered by Earth, Metal gets Guardian and Justice.
WATER gets the obvious physical choices of Water and Frost, as well as Death to represent its place as the "end" of the cycle.
With the obvious choices out of the way, I'm left with Artistry, Illusion, Psychopomp, War, Darkness, Sky, and Moon.
Artistry and Illusion are both creative endeavors, so I give Artistry to Wood and Illusion to Fire (Artistry wouldn't be inappropriate for Fire either, but Illusion seems to me to suit its capriciousness better). Wood is now full, and we need one more for Fire - I choose Psychopomp, due to Fire's constantly moving and restless nature.
Earth needs one, Water needs one, and Metal needs two. I lean towards War for Earth - some of Earth's other attributes are cited as ambition and long-term planning, which seems to suit War.
Now that I'm looking at the Wiki again, I notice that Darkness is an attribute of Water, and Metal features strong changing influences - I now want to change my original setup and give Darkness to Water and Moon to Metal instead of the other way around.
And, though it may not be a perfect fit for Metal, Sky goes to Metal (at least we can justify the lightning/electrical connection, though I have no idea what I'm going to do with this ball of wax once the Thunder Purview goes live).
I'd probably leave Thunder in Metal and the rest depends on what's left over. If it's all about wind and air, probably Wood (plus you can riff on the whole chi-vitality deal). If it's about the firmament, I'd probably leave it in Metal for the same reason Kshathra over in Samsara is associated with Sky.
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