Since Void is about inner peace, I've been trying an alternative for regaining points. I've been letting my characters use a scene to make a void+artistic type roll to get void points back.

Examples are like void meditation, void tea ceremony, void gardening, void calligraphy, etc.

I've set it at tn2 with an extra void gained for two opportunity.

So far I like this as it allows the characters to take a moment of respite to recenter themselves and find inner peace.

I'd love feedback on this if you have any.

I like it. I've been thinking about other ways to regain Void because as is, I kind of think the Void ring is weaksauce. Being your Void points cap make little sense if you start with one and may very well never gain too much since, sure, you gain some, but you're also bound to spend some.

I was also thinking about making you start each scenario with half your Void ring (rounded up) Void points.

So at Void 3 you start each story with 2 Void and at Void 5 you start each story with 3 Void. You can still accumulate more, but you get a headstart because you are oh-so-Voidy, and that makes sense to me, as well as gives additional incentive to raise the Void ring.

But yeah I really like the Void + Void skill rolls to regain Void points. The only drawback I saw in 4th edition (the only one I knew well) was that downtime could be heavily cheesed to "I Meditate/make Tea Ceremony a lot" to get back at full Void Points since each roll only took half an hour. It could also slow down the pace of the story if some players insisted in pausing to restock on Void points.

So... Maybe making the roll take half an hour and limiting it to once every 24h? Worth rolling, but won't grind the story to a halt waiting for you to roll back to your 4 or 5 full Void points.

Perfectly acceptable. Coulkd be done as an extended roll even where each roll is a couple hours. It shouldn't be easy to game, but should provide a benefit with some character flavor.

It certainly seems the weaker ring. On the other hand, it's also the one-driving-all (as in, increasing any ring ultimately keeps coming back to you [Void] faster than anything else).

Innate mechanical bonuses:

• Air
  • Contributes to Focus
  • Contributes to Vigilance
• Fire
  • Contributes to Composure
  • Contributes to Focus
• Earth
  • Contributes to Resiliance
  • Contributes to Composure
• Water
  • Daily wound removal is double your water ring
  • Scene-by-scene strife removal is your water ring
  • Contributes to Resiliance
  • Contributes to Vigilance
• Void
  • Maximum number of Void Points that you can hold at once
  • Drives character ring advancement - maximum purchased ring advance is your void ring + lowest ring (even if that's also your void ring)

Void is a bit random in that it's hard to compare directly. My main observation is that Water seems to be really, really good!

If you wanted to make water less important and void more important, maybe move strife recovery to void?

I agree that Void needs to be a bit more accessible / free. If you start with 1 all the time the only reason you up the stat is to unlock other stats... and that is bland. Further a character who focuses on Void currently has to trip up a lot just to get a few points to make their void worth while.

I was thinking maybe allowing a downtime activity to gain 1 void, and also allowing a player to use their Accessment check at the start of a scene with Void to recover void provided the assessment finds nothing unbalanced in the area to cause a stir.

For monks, plenty of Kiho needs void for full effects. That's not sustainable for monks.

6 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

• Daily wound removal is double your water ring
• Scene-by-scene strife removal is your water ring

I honestly would love these to things not be bound to water but general opportunity features.

I think I'm going to house-rule the Void Assessment check to recover 1 Void if the scene is calm. I felt this was the worst of the Assess options anyway because it has no direct benefit, where the others create some benefit from success. This would let a Monk assure themselves they would have at least 2 void during a surprise skirmish.

6 hours ago, shosuko said:

I think I'm going to house-rule the Void Assessment check to recover 1 Void if the scene is calm. I felt this was the worst of the Assess options anyway because it has no direct benefit, where the others create some benefit from success. This would let a Monk assure themselves they would have at least 2 void during a surprise skirmish.

Certainly at higher level play, a lot of abilities are powered by void points. The Mountain Does Not Fall springs to mind as another. I'm not suggesting a character should start every session with full void (because that makes the disadvantages-as-means-of-replenishing-void redundant, and that's a nice mechanic to make people actually engage with their character flaws rather than shy away from them) but when someone has Void 5 and a mass of void-driven kata, still only starting with a single void point seems odd.

12 hours ago, shosuko said:

I think I'm going to house-rule the Void Assessment check to recover 1 Void if the scene is calm. I felt this was the worst of the Assess options anyway because it has no direct benefit, where the others create some benefit from success. This would let a Monk assure themselves they would have at least 2 void during a surprise skirmish.

I like this idea.

I generally like increasing void flow. I liked this in 4E also. I’d say make characters start with their full Void, and they can earn up to Void X 2 or maybe Void + Rank.

If you make a test to regain Void, you should not tie additional Void gains to opportunity. Opportunity is supposed to represent advantages gained that are unrelated to the test. Gaining more Void should be based on net successes.

One way to handle a skill based Void regain is to make the amount of Void you get into a static number. Like, pass your roll and set your Void to 2 or 3 points. This will prevent spamming.

9 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Certainly at higher level play, a lot of abilities are powered by void points. The Mountain Does Not Fall springs to mind as another. I'm not suggesting a character should start every session with full void (because that makes the disadvantages-as-means-of-replenishing-void redundant, and that's a nice mechanic to make people actually engage with their character flaws rather than shy away from them) but when someone has Void 5 and a mass of void-driven kata, still only starting with a single void point seems odd.

I'm in favor of increasing how much void is avaliable (Starting with void points equal your void rings) and changing the void recovery to a full rest, doing your passion activity and similar stuff (like it was said in this thread)

And then after that, you go and check everything that costs void point in the game, to make it sure it is balanced after the changes.

But good point on the Water Ring. Strife removal indeed would be nicer on void.

2 hours ago, Mobiusllls said:

Strife removal indeed would be nicer on void

It would certainly fit the 'inner peace' aspect of void