Finally got around to looking at the actual system of this game, after skipping past the execrable gamer fiction and the background stuff (which might be quite good, but not really what I'm after). Now I'm looking at Character Creation, and what immediately struck me was: this is really pretty simple stuff. I imagine it could be distilled to a few pages with just lists and formulas. That's a plus, although I'd like it better if I didn't have to do the distilling.

But now let's look at the math. You've got 14 points to distribute among five aspects. Maximum value 5 per aspect. Take out one aspect, Earth, which is special, and the four remaining aspects are used to derive your Balance by adding two of them and subtracting the other two. You also get your Resistance by adding Earth to Metal. Finally, you get your Breath of Life by cross-indexing Balance and Resistance.

The chart for Breath of Life goes up to 25, which is what you get for a 0 Balance and Resistance of 10. But to have Resistance 10, you need 5 Earth and 5 Metal. Which means no two of the remaining aspects can sum to more than 4. Which means your Balance is going to be at least 1. Which means Breath of Life can never be 25, so why is it on the chart?

So here I thought, maybe there's a way to alter your aspects via experience/character progression. But I can't find any reference to such a thing in the book! It looks like once you've created your character, that's it, you don't even get to gain skills. Now, I kind of like this, but it seems a bit extreme. Or am I overlooking something?

Quote from: Elliot Wilen;408875Finally got around to looking at the actual system of this game, after skipping past the execrable gamer fiction and the background stuff (which might be quite good, but not really what I'm after). Now I'm looking at Character Creation, and what immediately struck me was: this is really pretty simple stuff. I imagine it could be distilled to a few pages with just lists and formulas. That's a plus, although I'd like it better if I didn't have to do the distilling.

But now let's look at the math. You've got 14 points to distribute among five aspects. Maximum value 5 per aspect. Take out one aspect, Earth, which is special, and the four remaining aspects are used to derive your Balance by adding two of them and subtracting the other two. You also get your Resistance by adding Earth to Metal. Finally, you get your Breath of Life by cross-indexing Balance and Resistance.

The chart for Breath of Life goes up to 25, which is what you get for a 0 Balance and Resistance of 10. But to have Resistance 10, you need 5 Earth and 5 Metal. Which means no two of the remaining aspects can sum to more than 4. Which means your Balance is going to be at least 1. Which means Breath of Life can never be 25, so why is it on the chart?

So here I thought, maybe there's a way to alter your aspects via experience/character progression. But I can't find any reference to such a thing in the book! It looks like once you've created your character, that's it, you don't even get to gain skills. Now, I kind of like this, but it seems a bit extreme. Or am I overlooking something?

Um, I'm quite sure that's not true. At least the version of Qin that I own had an advancement system.

RPGPundit

Quote from: Elliot Wilen;408875So here I thought, maybe there's a way to alter your aspects via experience/character progression. But I can't find any reference to such a thing in the book! It looks like once you've created your character, that's it, you don't even get to gain skills. Now, I kind of like this, but it seems a bit extreme. Or am I overlooking something?

You can advance or learn everything: aspects, skills, tao, ...
To advance an aspect, you need 5 x the new level in XP. If you want to raise an aspect from 4 to 5 you need 25 xp or whatever it is called in English (points d'Apprentissage in French).
In the French book it starts on page 249 (the chapter after the bestiary).

Bizarre. Couldn't find it in the book or the Table of Contents until now, but there it is starting p. 240 in the English edition (and yes, it's in the ToC). Some kind of blindness on my part. Thanks for your help and patience.