It took me a while to sit down and meditate these rules and your explanation. But thanks to your quotes and explanation, it's clear. For our readers, the last quote is from page 126 of LML.

I have some questions regarding merits and mentors, but I'll need to take time to formulate them. I'll keep you posted.

Hello Again,

I'm back with one more question regarding merits. The details on how to increase and gain abilities really snuck up on me.  Because... this is lejendary adventure! You don't just expend merits (or XP) and increase skills. Don't be silly.

So, the first distinction is that skills are divided into four categories, regarding how can you learn it: by yourself or with training and study.

Immediately Gained Abilities:
Self-Trained Abilities:
Outside-Training Required Abilities: You roll under 10% of the related BR
Special-Training Required Abilities


Q1:
Immediately Gained Abilities and Self-Trained Abilities, you can spend merits directly and gain them at 20%. Is this correct?

Q2:
Some abilities require a roll. Outside-Training Required Abilities: You roll under 10% of the related BR.

However, for Special-Training Required Abilities you roll under 10% of the related BR, per day dedicated to training. For example, 3 days means 30% of your BR. Is this accurate? It seems that learning activations and powers are easier and faster than training other skills.

Quote from: Rithuan;1087383Hello Again,

I'm back with one more question regarding merits. The details on how to increase and gain abilities really snuck up on me.  Because... this is lejendary adventure! You don't just expend merits (or XP) and increase skills. Don't be silly.

So we have two different things here. Increasing abilities already possessed. And gaining new abilities.


Increasing abilities pretty much just is spending merits. You just have to spend at least one ability specific merit for every 25 general merits. For example, raising an Ability score from 45 to 46 requires 250 merits. You can raise it by spending 10 ability specific merits plus 240 general merits.

Training (on a daily basis) allows the Avatar to the ability without the requisite minimum of ability specific merits. This can be self-training, which requires a successful ability check for each point to be gained (a special success allows for 2 points to be gained), or training under a mentor, which requires payment to a mentor with at least twice the score in the ability the Avatar is attempting to increase. The rules list no probability for success in this, you may assume it works automatically without a check. In any case, merits must always be spent to raise ability scores, even if they are only general merits.

Another type of training is intensive training (on a weekly basis). Depending upon the ability and circumstance, this may cost a good sum of money, or may be free. The Avatar might even get paid to learn "on the job." One ability check is made weekly. For each success, the Avatar gains d6x10 ability-specific merits. On a special success, the Avatar will gain a full point in the ability for free. Or gain d4 free ability points if the Ability score is below 31.

Note that Abilities can no longer earn ability-specific merits when they are 76+. Likely daily self-training will be used, as the probability is high that just one day of work will allow advancement in the ability.



When it comes to gaining new abilities, as you note, there are four categories, based on how easy or hard they are to pick up later in life. Gaining new abilities cost 2500 merits, and the new ability begins at 20% of the associated BR (if the BR is speed, you use 20% of speed x4). Note that Outside-Training-Required Abilities specifies 10%. I'm honestly not sure if that is a misprint, or if these abilities really do begin at 10% rather than 20%. I believe it is a misprint, though, and we always play it as 20%.

For the Special-Training-Required abilities, don't be fooled into thinking these are easier to learn than others just because the check is higher. Back on LML pg 113, there is a section "THE INCIDENCE OF EXTRAORDINARY ABILITIES IN GENERAL POPULATIONS." Here it states, as a suggestion, that learning new Extraordinary abilities be made more difficult. That as an additional requirement, an Avatar who did not start with any extraordinary abilities at all would have only a 1% chance per point of Speed of being capable of learning an Extraordinary Ability. Or, if dedicating himself to learning only one specific extraordinary ability, the probability is enhanced to 4% per point of Speed. For Avatars that do begin with an Extraordinary Ability, their probability of learning a second one later is 5% per point of speed, 3% per point of speed for the next one after that, and 1% per point of Speed thereafter.

If the check fails, the Avatar can't have that ability. On a failure, however, the player may opt for a chance at a limited capacity ability. So a second check would be made, and if that one is successful, the Avatar is able to learn the Ability but will only ever be able to perform a single power. The player is allowed to select the power.

One notable exception when learning new abilities. Some Alfar have innate abilities that resemble Abilities in the game. For instance, all Wylfs have the Psychogenic Power "Sensory Acuity" and one other power of their choice. The Grotto Elf sub-race also automatically has the Psychogenic Power "Nictoscopy" always on--that is their means of vision. Lacking the Psychogenic Power, the default check for these functions is Speed x2. If the Wylf later gains Psychogenics, the initial score is not the usual 20% of BR (Speed x4). They get 1 additional point per point of Speed. So a Wylf with 15 Speed (x4 = 60) would gain Psychogenics at 27 rather than 12.

The Kobold has an innate Physique bonus of +2 to +5. So if a Kobold later gains the Physique Ability, the initial score is 10 times the bonus, plus 10% of Health BR. So a Kobold with 50 Health, for example, who begins with a +3 Physique bonus, will gain Physique at 35 rather than the usual 10.

Thanks for the great summary, and pointing out additional examples (and exceptions) of the rules.

So, page 183 of the LR4AP says "all new abilities have a score of 20% of the related base rating."

This page also covers when an Alfar avatar gain an extraordinary ability that he or she already possesses extraordinary activations. In that case, + Speed rating. Thanks for the reminder!

Quote from: Lunamancer;1087436When it comes to gaining new abilities, as you note, there are four categories, based on how easy or hard they are to pick up later in life. Gaining new abilities cost 2500 merits, and the new ability begins at 20% of the associated BR (if the BR is speed, you use 20% of speed x4). Note that Outside-Training-Required Abilities specifies 10%. I'm honestly not sure if that is a misprint, or if these abilities really do begin at 10% rather than 20%. I believe it is a misprint, though, and we always play it as 20%.

Thanks for the clarification. I was trying to figure out what did I miss.  Also, I got confused by the probability to gain an ability and the probability of gaining a new activation. The former it's hard and requires a set time. The later, you have a chance to increase the probability to learn an activation f you spent more time.

Quote from: Lunamancer;1087436For the Special-Training-Required abilities, don't be fooled into thinking these are easier to learn than others just because the check is higher. Back on LML pg 113, there is a section "THE INCIDENCE OF EXTRAORDINARY ABILITIES IN GENERAL POPULATIONS." Here it states, as a suggestion, that learning new Extraordinary abilities be made more difficult. That as an additional requirement, an Avatar who did not start with any extraordinary abilities at all would have only a 1% chance per point of Speed of being capable of learning an Extraordinary Ability. Or, if dedicating himself to learning only one specific extraordinary ability, the probability is enhanced to 4% per point of Speed. For Avatars that do begin with an Extraordinary Ability, their probability of learning a second one later is 5% per point of speed, 3% per point of speed for the next one after that, and 1% per point of Speed thereafter.

If the check fails, the Avatar can't have that ability. On a failure, however, the player may opt for a chance at a limited capacity ability. So a second check would be made, and if that one is successful, the Avatar is able to learn the Ability but will only ever be able to perform a single power. The player is allowed to select the power.

I completely miss that section. That section certainly put things in perspective. Thank you!

Quote from: Lunamancer;1087436One notable exception when learning new abilities. Some Alfar have innate abilities that resemble Abilities in the game. For instance, all Wylfs have the Psychogenic Power "Sensory Acuity" and one other power of their choice. The Grotto Elf sub-race also automatically has the Psychogenic Power "Nictoscopy" always on--that is their means of vision. Lacking the Psychogenic Power, the default check for these functions is Speed x2. If the Wylf later gains Psychogenics, the initial score is not the usual 20% of BR (Speed x4). They get 1 additional point per point of Speed. So a Wylf with 15 Speed (x4 = 60) would gain Psychogenics at 27 rather than 12.

The Kobold has an innate Physique bonus of +2 to +5. So if a Kobold later gains the Physique Ability, the initial score is 10 times the bonus, plus 10% of Health BR. So a Kobold with 50 Health, for example, who begins with a +3 Physique bonus, will gain Physique at 35 rather than the usual 10.

I understood the first example, but I didn't get the second. Would you kindly elaborate on this?

Thank you!

As a side note, I just wanted to comment on how interesting is the mechanics ingrained in the setting. For example, learning by practice and association with people who know.

Regarding learning new activations (or spells), the PC needs to contact new towns and cities, spend time and gold.

Not all the guilds charge the same for their secrets. For example, learning Theurgic magic require a tithe for life (10%)

Quote from: Rithuan;1087881I understood the first example, but I didn't get the second. Would you kindly elaborate on this?

One of the racial bonuses Kobolds get is a Physique bonus of +2-+5, randomly determined at character creation. The kobold does not, and in fact cannot, begin the game with the Physique Ability. The term "Physique bonus" refers not to the Physique ability, but it's just a harm bonus.

If Kobolds were to gain Physique Ability later, by the normal rules it would begin somewhere around 10. Which is only good for a +1 harm bonus. Which is worse than their innate bonus. So instead we have Physique Ability begin at 10 times the Physique bonus, so that the harm bonus remains the same. We add in 10% of Health just so it's a factor, but it's generally not going to be enough to bring the kobold to the next tier of harm bonus.

QuoteAs a side note, I just wanted to comment on how interesting is the mechanics ingrained in the setting. For example, learning by practice and association with people who know.

Regarding learning new activations (or spells), the PC needs to contact new towns and cities, spend time and gold.

Not all the guilds charge the same for their secrets. For example, learning Theurgic magic require a tithe for life (10%)

Absolutely. Also notice each Order has a range of social classes associated with it. This is further supported by the equipment pick system for starting Avatars.

In Dangerous Journeys, the very first step in creating a Heroic Persona is determining background socio-economic class. This has long been a staple of Gygaxian fantasy. When you see how much emphasis he places on it, then you go back to the old AD&D texts, you realize when he included royalty titles in the DMG, when he noted PCs are assumed to begin as freemen or gentlemen, and when he included a stack rank of social levels in the back of one of the greyhawk books, this wasn't just lip service or fluff.

I like LA. And the TLG simple set.

I wonder if anyone has ever gone back to the game and translated all the funky language back into sort of normal role playing terms, things like avatar for character; some of the lingo just takes some of the greatness away from the game in my opinion.

Quote from: soundchaser;1088258I like LA. And the TLG simple set.

I like LA, too, but I found the Hekaforge books far more to my taste than the TLG boxed set. I think it cut a bit *too* much.

I'd like to see the full rules published, again, but I'm not holding my breath for anything out of Gygax Games, at this point.

Quote from: soundchaser;1088258I wonder if anyone has ever gone back to the game and translated all the funky language back into sort of normal role playing terms, things like avatar for character; some of the lingo just takes some of the greatness away from the game in my opinion.

Fun fact. The term is actually "Avatar Character" which may be shortened by calling them Avatars, Characters, or AC's. So just calling them "characters" is perfectly fine as is, without revision. In fact, the glossary at the beginning of LR4AP says "An Avatar is also referred to as a character." You will find it referred to as such in the book. But it turns out that, of the three terms, Avatar is the one that stuck the most.

It reminds me of Gary's Dangerous Journeys game. It got some of the same criticism about term usage. But the game actually used the term "Game Master" in the books. JM, Journey Master, emerged from use by the fans and so got used in the ezines for the game. So using the Term LM/Lejend Master for LA was inevitable anyway.

20 years of hearing complaints about the game terminology, and I still never felt the criticism of its "funky language" ever had much merit to it. I could probably plagiarize the game word for word, republish it under a different name, and you won't hear peep about odd, non-standard jargon. (Nor of purple prose for that matter.) What other strange terms does the game use?

Action Blocks, and Action Block Counts is the worst of it.

Activation Energy? The term was necessary. You can't call it mana or something like that because Psychogenics uses the same system as magic. Which is surely a godsend to people who hated psionics in AD&D.

Speaking of activations, like the term "Avatar" it's not the only official term. They're also referred to as powers. I'm pretty sure they're more often referred to as powers in the core books. Which is even a less jargony than calling them "spells." And powers is a more appropriate term for use with psychogenics. I refer to them as powers. And even in AD&D groups when talking about AD&D I use the term "power" and nobody is ever confused as to what I'm talking about. The term "activation" is still retained because you're not always activating some personal use power. You can also activate an item.

What other odd terms are there? Grade, Rank, and Order? Check your 1E PHB closely. These were the terms originally considered for D&D but they went with calling everything "level" instead. And more than a few newbies have been taken aback that you actually need to be 7th level to be able to memorize 4th level spells.

The jargon in LA is pretty much the worst around. Except for every other RPG I've ever read.

Quote from: Philotomy Jurament;1088259I like LA, too, but I found the Hekaforge books far more to my taste than the TLG boxed set. I think it cut a bit *too* much.

I'd like to see the full rules published, again, but I'm not holding my breath for anything out of Gygax Games, at this point.

I communicated with Alex over a Facebook group a few weeks ago. I mentioned how I still had an actiave LA group, hoping to hear some excitement about what he was working on. He said he wished he still had an active group. I'm thinking my group's gotta get motivated to do it ourselves. As far as I know, we are the last long-running active group left for the game. And we've got both an artist and an illustrator at our game table.

Glad to see more people remember LA with love. To be honest, I don't have much trouble with lingo. Today we have games with jargon, and no one cares.

However, I still find it hard to wrap my head around the rules. I would say it is a matter of wording, but since English is my second language, I might be wrong. Rules contradiction and spread between books doesn't help (but this last point was also a problem for AD&D)

Activations and memory tablets are the kinds of language that I expect to be talking out of characters, and not in characters. But that can be easily fixed

(ASP) Attacker Situation Precision is another term that could be ignored and described as modifier or final mod.

(AB) Activity Block and (ABC) Activity Block Count, could be simple turns. 1 ABC = 1 turn (3s). 1 AB = 4 turns (12s). This could be a good question for Lunamancer. What is the purpose of the AB? AFAIK, attacks are measured in ABC. Activations (Spells) are measured in seconds, but we already cover that in this thread.

Quote from: Lunamancer;1088333I communicated with Alex over a Facebook group a few weeks ago. I mentioned how I still had an actiave LA group, hoping to hear some excitement about what he was working on. He said he wished he still had an active group. I'm thinking my group's gotta get motivated to do it ourselves. As far as I know, we are the last long-running active group left for the game. And we've got both an artist and an illustrator at our game table.

Oh, color me interested. I would love to see a reprint or a new edition of LA.  Nevertheless, I'm also interested to see what are you doing with the system.

Quote from: Rithuan;1088370Glad to see more people remember LA with love. To be honest, I don't have much trouble with lingo. Today we have games with jargon, and no one cares.

Yeah, I mean I had to learn the game from scratch like anyone else. There was no one to teach me. I had to read the books. I found the language less difficult than most RPGs. I might read a sentence out of, oh say, 5th edition that makes no sense at all without knowing the jargon. Which means stopping, going to look up the jargon, then re-reading the sentence. Even though in principle I think 5E is a decent system, so much as making my first character was frustrating as hell. When I read LA, whatever game term, or even just big vocabulary word comes up, the meaning is clear from the context of the sentence.

QuoteHowever, I still find it hard to wrap my head around the rules. I would say it is a matter of wording, but since English is my second language, I might be wrong. Rules contradiction and spread between books doesn't help (but this last point was also a problem for AD&D)

There's no doubt that some of the things in the game did force me to break some of my mental patterns and start looking at things different ways. That's one of the first things I said in this thread. That I think learning LA at that level actually improved my AD&D game a lot.

QuoteActivations and memory tablets are the kinds of language that I expect to be talking out of characters, and not in characters. But that can be easily fixed

I consider memory tablets to be an in-character thing. I forget exactly where in the books it describes what these things are like. I basically think Moses style 10 commandment tablets. And to me that's a cool visual. But the LM can also vary them up. Maybe enchanters can spend 6 magical list equipment picks for a magic book which holds up to 25-30 powers. That would likely result in the Enchanter starting with two fewer powers but able to get 1-6 more in the long run without having to obtain additional tablets.

Quote(ASP) Attacker Situation Precision is another term that could be ignored and described as modifier or final mod.

I'm not sure that term ever gets used. So yes, it can be ignored completely. It doesn't even show up in the glossary.

Quote(AB) Activity Block and (ABC) Activity Block Count, could be simple turns. 1 ABC = 1 turn (3s). 1 AB = 4 turns (12s). This could be a good question for Lunamancer. What is the purpose of the AB? AFAIK, attacks are measured in ABC. Activations (Spells) are measured in seconds, but we already cover that in this thread.

I don't think anyone at all knows the answer. But I may have a pretty good idea. It starts to become somewhat obvious the instant you decide it would be a good idea to take out a battle mat and use minis. Or in my case, it became obvious when I tried setting up a game on Roll20.

Remember, these aren't 1 minute AD&D style rounds. They're 3 seconds. How far can you really move in 3 seconds? It would take FOREVER to make your way across the battlefield. So using longer rounds, like action blocks, makes things a lot more manageable, and it starts to become more obvious why ABs are there.

Movement rates are spelled out on pg 185/186 LR4AP. And this section could have definitely been done better. I did out all the math. The movement rates listed under "Exterior Movement" matches up exactly with movement rates under "General Movement" for Avatars with 10 Speed. So I assume likewise "Subterranean Movement" rates are based on an Avatar with 10 Speed. When I do out the math, it turns out the base movement rate is exactly equal Speed in yards per Action Block. This is set up for old-school style where you can generally have three abreast in a 10 foot corridor rather than just 2--basically using a 1 yard grid rather than a 5' grid. Then you can move one yard per point of Speed. If you're using 25mm minis on a table top, a Speed of 12 means you can move 12" in an action block. The idea being, you should be using Action blocks until the actual fighting begins.

QuoteOh, color me interested. I would love to see a reprint or a new edition of LA.  Nevertheless, I'm also interested to see what are you doing with the system.

This September is the 20th anniversary of the release of Lejendary Rules for All Players. I thought it would be funny to convert the game to using a d20 style mechanic and calling it Lejendary Adventure 2 0. I feel like it would lose a lot switching to a d20 though.

Quote from: Lunamancer;1088423I consider memory tablets to be an in-character thing. I forget exactly where in the books it describes what these things are like. I basically think Moses style 10 commandment tablets. And to me that's a cool visual. But the LM can also vary them up. Maybe enchanters can spend 6 magical list equipment picks for a magic book which holds up to 25-30 powers. That would likely result in the Enchanter starting with two fewer powers but able to get 1-6 more in the long run without having to obtain additional tablets.

That's an interesting option for a more classic D&D wizard.  I mind the name more than the visual. Makes me think of an iPad, which could be cool for an urban mage or Shadowrun, but not for a fantasy setting.

I change a lot the visual aspect of the tablets. The default is the "tablet," but a player can choose color crystals (like FFVII Materias), runes, bones inscribed, etc. One player asked tattoos which could be problematic since its difficult to separate the memory tablet form the character... but is not impossible.

Quote from: Lunamancer;1088423I don't think anyone at all knows the answer. But I may have a pretty good idea. It starts to become somewhat obvious the instant you decide it would be a good idea to take out a battle mat and use minis. Or in my case, it became obvious when I tried setting up a game on Roll20.

Remember, these aren't 1 minute AD&D style rounds. They're 3 seconds. How far can you really move in 3 seconds? It would take FOREVER to make your way across the battlefield. So using longer rounds, like action blocks, makes things a lot more manageable, and it starts to become more obvious why ABs are there.

Movement rates are spelled out on pg 185/186 LR4AP. And this section could have definitely been done better. I did out all the math. The movement rates listed under "Exterior Movement" matches up exactly with movement rates under "General Movement" for Avatars with 10 Speed. So I assume likewise "Subterranean Movement" rates are based on an Avatar with 10 Speed. When I do out the math, it turns out the base movement rate is exactly equal Speed in yards per Action Block. This is set up for old-school style where you can generally have three abreast in a 10 foot corridor rather than just 2--basically using a 1 yard grid rather than a 5' grid. Then you can move one yard per point of Speed. If you're using 25mm minis on a table top, a Speed of 12 means you can move 12" in an action block. The idea being, you should be using Action blocks until the actual fighting begins.

This was a remarkable example of its usefulness. I'll keep that in mind, considering that im not a big fan of miniatures and maps.
By the way, next time you set up an adventure in roll20, let me know! I'm eager to play.

Quote from: Lunamancer;1088423This September is the 20th anniversary of the release of Lejendary Rules for All Players. I thought it would be funny to convert the game to using a d20 style mechanic and calling it Lejendary Adventure 2 0. I feel like it would lose a lot switching to a d20 though.

Hey, I didn't know it was September. I also think it would lose a lot converting the system, but you could always convert some of the gygaxian elements like Orders, some extraordinary objects and activations.

To be honest, I would be more interested in a Lejendary Companion, that helps to sort out some rules questions and contradictions, and include advice on how to run the game. I'm considering updating the QS in Spanish, adding more avatars and changing some events. Perhaps a continuation of the QS adventure. I'll write BluSponge when I'm ready for that.

Hello Again,

I have one more question regarding merits,  gaining new skills, and activations.  

1) I have some confusion with Divination and Psychogenic. Both appear in the Immediately Gained Abilities and the Special-Training Required Abilities. Does this mean that Initial skill can be gained as Immediately Gained Abilities, but the initial divination methods/powers need to be learned as Special-Training Required Abilities?  (Note that it's different in cost and difficulty than "Gaining new extraordinary activations" on LML p 142)

2) If 1) is correct, Do you need to spend 3000 merits for each initial psychogenic activations? When do you pay gold and roll the dice for learning, and when do you buy them with merits?

3) Finally, Is there a limit of the complexity of the activation you can choose at the character creation?
Theurgy and George, among others, require tier IX activations in order to use other activations. So in the beginning, we know you can pick IX grade activations,  but can you choose only the best activations (IX) skipping the basic ones (I-III)?

Quote from: Rithuan;1088823To be honest, I would be more interested in a Lejendary Companion, that helps to sort out some rules questions and contradictions, and include advice on how to run the game. I'm considering updating the QS in Spanish, adding more avatars and changing some events. Perhaps a continuation of the QS adventure. I'll write BluSponge when I'm ready for that.

That would be cool. I was a play-tester and consultant on the quick start. It was a weird thing, some of the back-and-forths I had with others in the community.

My perspective on LA in general is, this is a great and flexible system. Let's show it can do D&D style dungeon crawls as well as more free form adventures with plenty of RP and outdoor and exploration skill use. And that was shouted down, the part about the dungeon crawling. Let D&D do that. Let LA play to its strengths.

Fine.

But then when it came to the QuickStart, since the objective was to showcase the game's rules, the adventure itself was kept pretty bog standard, tossing out the whole idea of playing to LA's strengths. The idea was also to get players started quickly, so it only stuck to familiar races, leaving out the ones unique to LA.

So I would say absolutely, there is a lot of room to grow this. It's been over a decade since I last asked him, but BluSponge felt like the quick start gets the job done, no other is needed. I thought it would have been neat to have a few other independent quick starts. Each to give a different taste of what LA is like since so much had to be left out of the original. The bog-standard RPG adventure is not going to appeal to everyone.

In any case, what I have decided to work on is a Dungeoneers Guide to Lejendary Adventure. And all this is is me going through the AD&D 1st Ed corebooks, picking out every single thing the rules say a character can do, and formulating how something like that would work in LA. And I'm trying to come up with formulations that give similar probabilities to D&D. The idea being to give the D&D players and DMs the tools to do in LA what they've come to expect from RPGs. AD&D has an open doors rating right on the strength table? So I want to make sure we have a ruling on standby that covers that. Half of Physique + one-tenth of Body Weight (in lbs). Listening at doors? 10% + half of Scrutiny.

Quote from: Rithuan;10896661) I have some confusion with Divination and Psychogenic. Both appear in the Immediately Gained Abilities and the Special-Training Required Abilities. Does this mean that Initial skill can be gained as Immediately Gained Abilities, but the initial divination methods/powers need to be learned as Special-Training Required Abilities?  (Note that it's different in cost and difficulty than "Gaining new extraordinary activations" on LML p 142)

You got it exactly.

Quote2) If 1) is correct, Do you need to spend 3000 merits for each initial psychogenic activations? When do you pay gold and roll the dice for learning, and when do you buy them with merits?

I don't require the 3000 merits for the initial powers. I guess the rules don't directly say one way or another. But I think it's implied.

Look at the example it gives for Enchantment. You take the initial score, divide by 3. That's how many chances you get at a power, subject to the learning check. So with 17 ability, divided by 3, that's rounded up to 6 chances. If only half of those chances succeed, you start your new ability knowing 3 powers.

It then follows that up to say, for other Extraordinary Abilities, things such as learning to create command and protection circles, count as power-like picks. With 17 initial ability, these things would count against your 6 chances. So with that, I'd liken it to equipment picks. Save for memory tablets, anything that requires an equipment pick counts as one of your chances.

With Psychogenics, each power requires 3 equipment picks. So an Avatar beginning with 17 Ability would get six chances, but in Psychogenics each power would cost "3 chances." So you make your check to learn power twice. With a 47% chance of success, that means you're probably going to end up with one. Now here are a couple of caveats. First, since these extraordinary abilities have no function without these powers, I'll put a floor in of 1 power. Even if every learning check fails. Second, with a 17 Ability in Psychogenics, you're not capable of knowing more than one power until your ability reaches 20. So I skip the checks and just automatically start the Avatar out with one power upon first learning Psychogenics Ability.

Divination works more like Enchantment. You get the 6 chances at learning a Divination means. As I read divination, unlike Psychogenics, you round up, not down, to determine number of means you may have. So at 17 you are allowed to have 2. At 21 you may learn a third one. Again, here, in the unlikely event that all 6 checks fail, I still allow the Avatar to begin with one Divination means. But most likely the Avatar will have two means initially upon learning divination.

As an aside, I have been giving some thought to expanding Divination so it uses powers like most other Extraordinary Abilities. It would have three sub-areas: Astrology, Fortune-Telling, and Mediumship. I don't often see players take Divination Ability, but feedback I've gotten from players is they'd be a lot more likely to take it if it does have regular powers.

Quote3) Finally, Is there a limit of the complexity of the activation you can choose at the character creation?
Theurgy and George, among others, require tier IX activations in order to use other activations. So in the beginning, we know you can pick IX grade activations,  but can you choose only the best activations (IX) skipping the basic ones (I-III)?

Not unless you houserule it. When we were talking about alternatives to memory tablets, I thought about having Spellbooks for Enchanters that cost several equipment picks. And the number of powers they would hold would be variable, with higher grade ones taking up more space. Just something I'm toying with. So you should push that aside for now.

The main feature of higher grade powers is usually longer range. This is most easily seen with Geourgy. If you look at the range of the powers, look at the activation time for higher grade powers, and consider typical movement speeds, you see there's a rough semblance of "balance" to it. Higher activation times is pretty much a no-go if someone is standing right on top of you, taking whacks at you every ABC. The further away the enemy is, the more time you have to activate before the enemy closes in, so the more viable higher grade activations are. The flip side being, if the enemy is really that far away, the lower grade activations might not have the range necessary to be viable themselves. This is how the game scales, from fighting in close quarters, to large scale skirmishes on a battle field. Now of course there's also generally a trade-off between AEP cost and harm caused. But then again, that's to be expected. If the enemy is a full action block away from you, you can fire out a Very Strong power. In that same amount of time, you could have fired out four Low-Moderate powers.

I should say, I'm currently playing a Mage Avatar, and I almost exclusively use powers Grade I-III. Sometimes I'll use a Grade IV or V. It's rare I'll use anything higher than that. I have a few powers I've literally never used are Spirit Form and Elephant of Surprise. I don't consider them wastes of picks, though, because they could save my ass in a tough situation as a last resort.