Meditation and strife

By TheSapient, in Rules Questions

Strife can be removed in many different ways. The section on "Removing Strife" on page 29 lists ninjos, passions, tea ceremonies, and meditation. The first three give specific values from the amount of strife to remove, and under what conditions. I am not finding similar specifics for meditation. Am I failing to find the text? If not...

I assume this is a downtime activity, requiring at least a few hours. Would you roll a meditation check to remove strife, with TN and results similar to a tea ceremony ritual?

But I'm probably just failing to find the text.

21 minutes ago, TheSapient said:

Strife can be removed in many different ways. The section on "Removing Strife" on page 29 lists ninjos, passions, tea ceremonies, and meditation. The first three give specific values from the amount of strife to remove, and under what conditions. I am not finding similar specifics for meditation. Am I failing to find the text? If not...

I assume this is a downtime activity, requiring at least a few hours. Would you roll a meditation check to remove strife, with TN and results similar to a tea ceremony ritual?

But I'm probably just failing to find the text.

haven't seen any specific rules about using meditation to remove strife.

what are the rule to remove strife "naturally" lets say you just let time pass ?

43 minutes ago, TheSapient said:

I assume this is a downtime activity, requiring at least a few hours. Would you roll a meditation check to remove strife, with TN and results similar to a tea ceremony ritual?

While I do not have the book in front of me, I do not believe you are failing to find the text. I believe that the line you are quoting is an artifact of translation from 4E to 5E.

However, I would suggest creating a Ritual (most access in the game), at Rank 1, allowing characters to roll Meditation (Void) at TN 2 as a downtime action to reduce their Strife by 3 + Bonus Successes (similar to indulging in a Passion, but risking gaining Strife from the dice roll), with the ability to spend 2 Opportunities to gain a Void Point if you are currently at 0 or 1 Void Point.

49 minutes ago, TheSapient said:

Strife can be removed in many different ways. The section on "Removing Strife" on page 29 lists ninjos, passions, tea ceremonies, and meditation. The first three give specific values from the amount of strife to remove, and under what conditions. I am not finding similar specifics for meditation. Am I failing to find the text? If not...

I assume this is a downtime activity, requiring at least a few hours. Would you roll a meditation check to remove strife, with TN and results similar to a tea ceremony ritual?

But I'm probably just failing to find the text.

I think this is something that slipped from the beta, since RAW you cannot recover strife with Meditation unless you have Enlightenment as a passion. However I'd allow a player to use an opportunity on a non-initiative Meditation check to remove strife (like the generic Water opp), going even further and letting this opp be an opp+, restoring 2 strife and +2 strife for each oppopp.

Edited by omnicrone

how do you naturally remove strife in this game ? sleeping ?

tea ceremony can't be the only way. i forgot the basic rule

5 minutes ago, Avatar111 said:

how do you naturally remove strife in this game ? sleeping ?

tea ceremony can't be the only way. i forgot the basic rule

Passions. Removes 3 strife whenever it is engaged. Pursuing Ninjo also removes all strife, but only on downtime or narrative scenes.

Edited by omnicrone

You also remove strife down to half of Composure at the end of a scene.

ok, so if you want to lower your strife below half of composure, the only way is passion ?

a bit weird.

it probably is missing something else aside "pursue your passion and tea ceremony".

5 minutes ago, Avatar111 said:

ok, so if you want to lower your strife below half of composure, the only way is passion ?

a bit weird.

it probably is missing something else aside "pursue your passion and tea ceremony".

I fail to see how weird is this. You can only truly relax pursuing things you really like doing, are deeply motivated to do or by partaking in a traditional ritual for this very purpose.

Also, any smart player should start play with 2 passions and purchasing a third one is the cost of a technique.

Edited by omnicrone
Just now, omnicrone said:

I fail to see how weird is this. You can only truly relax pursuing things you really like doing, are deeply motivated to or by partaking in a traditional ritual for this very purpose.

Also, any smart player should start play with 2 passions and purchasing a third one is the cost of a technique.

i can relax just by sleeping. but maybe it is my passion :D

you know how you heal fatigue over time ? like water ring per day or something like that ?

i wouldn't mind something similar for composure. as long as it isnt as time efficient as passion or tea ceremony.

1 minute ago, Avatar111 said:

i can relax just by sleeping. but maybe it is my passion :D

This is why Fatigue comes back from sleeping. Strife is meant to represent mental / emotional stress, not physical fatigue. As anyone who lives in a perpetually stressful situation can tell you, sleep alone will not likely cut it, nor will rest.

I like the idea of pursuing your Ninjo as a a means of removing all your Strife. You want to actually relax? All the way? Spend some "me" time.

1 minute ago, Avatar111 said:

you know how you heal fatigue over time ? like water ring per day or something like that ?

i wouldn't mind something similar for composure. as long as it isnt as time efficient as passion or tea ceremony.

It should heal faster. I'd say if you spend an entire day without engaging in any scene that isn't a downtime your strife resets to zero. But if your life is hectic enough that you are engaging with narrative or conflict scenes everyday, yeah, you need to engage with passions/rituals/ninjo in order to cooldown.

1 minute ago, omnicrone said:

It should heal faster. I'd say if you spend an entire day without engaging in any scene that isn't a downtime your strife resets to zero. But if your life is hectic enough that you are engaging with narrative or conflict scenes everyday, yeah, you need to engage with passions/rituals/ninjo in order to cooldown.

i prefer that.

to heal fatigue, it is water ring per full day of doing nothing ? that you "heal" ?

Just now, Avatar111 said:

i prefer that.

to heal fatigue, it is water ring per full day of doing nothing ? that you "heal" ?

No. "After a full night's rest, a character heals fatigue equal to two times their Water Ring." You just need a good night of sleep. Resting for entire days is necessary to heal the Wounded condition, however.

2 minutes ago, omnicrone said:

No. "After a full night's rest, a character heals fatigue equal to two times their Water Ring." You just need a good night of sleep. Resting for entire days is necessary to heal the Wounded condition, however.

you'd better have an easy to do passion. thats all i can say.

I do think it makes sens that strife is harder to get rid of than fatigue. For me as a real person, the stupid stuff I do and say haunts me a lot longer than any sort of physical expenditure does.

I was just rewriting my character a bit, refining his concept and taking thematically appropriate advantages and disadvantages without thinking too much about the mechanics. I had taken Enlightenment and Delusions of Grandeur. Together, they give and remove three strife when meditating on one's place in the universe. Oops.

39 minutes ago, Avatar111 said:

you'd better have an easy to do passion. thats all i can say.

In my table it is very frequent, for all characters, to engage in passions. The "metagamer/powergamer" way of having passions is beelining into having 3 of them (you can start with two, so that is easy) and diversify into a social passion, preferably one that is pursuable in courtly situations/intrigues, a solitary passion, usually related to an artisan or trade skill, and a survivalist passion that can be engaged during travels or "almost anywhere". But even you choose your passions strictly for flavor and don't powergame them at all, they will still be pursuable without much issue I think (unless your DM is an ***hole).

Just now, omnicrone said:

In my table it is very frequent, for all characters, to engage in passions. The "metagamer/powergamer" way of having passions is beelining into having 3 of them (you can start with two, so that is easy) and diversify into a social passion, preferably one that is pursuable in courtly situations/intrigues, a solitary passion, usually related to an artisan or trade skill, and a survivalist passion that can be engaged during travels or "almost anywhere". But even you choose your passions strictly for flavor and don't powergame them at all, they will still be pursuable without much issue I think (unless your DM is an ***hole).

yeah thats it, basically you let the guys do their passions regularly in downtime, otherwise it just becomes painful.

makes sense.

1 hour ago, omnicrone said:

It should heal faster. I'd say if you spend an entire day without engaging in any scene that isn't a downtime your strife resets to zero. But if your life is hectic enough that you are engaging with narrative or conflict scenes everyday, yeah, you need to engage with passions/rituals/ninjo in order to cooldown.

Resets to zero regardless of the number you were at? You can go from compromised to zero strife if you just have a single carefree day? That seems excessive. Reduce by one or two maybe, but I wouldn't let it wipe the slate clean.

9 minutes ago, nameless ronin said:

Resets to zero regardless of the number you were at? You can go from compromised to zero strife if you just have a single carefree day? That seems excessive. Reduce by one or two maybe, but I wouldn't let it wipe the slate clean.

honestly... take it easy. it is an rpg. full night rest? regain all HPs. of course, conditions etc.. those can stay if they represent bigger wounds/trauma.

you can decide to have a grittier feel and make it harder to heal though.

Just now, Avatar111 said:

honestly... take it easy. it is an rpg. full night rest? regain all HPs. of course, conditions etc.. those can stay if they represent bigger wounds/trauma.

you can decide to have a grittier feel and make it harder to heal though.

Eh. It's Strife. The whole game is supposed to be about samurai drama caused by Strife. Why should that be easy to deal with?

52 minutes ago, omnicrone said:

In my table it is very frequent, for all characters, to engage in passions. The "metagamer/powergamer" way of having passions is beelining into having 3 of them (you can start with two, so that is easy) and diversify into a social passion, preferably one that is pursuable in courtly situations/intrigues, a solitary passion, usually related to an artisan or trade skill, and a survivalist passion that can be engaged during travels or "almost anywhere". But even you choose your passions strictly for flavor and don't powergame them at all, they will still be pursuable without much issue I think (unless your DM is an ***hole).

Any good suggestions for a "Travel" passion to come up often?

11 minutes ago, Hida Jitenno said:

Any good suggestions for a "Travel" passion to come up often?

Reading travel journals should do it, the character can do that anywhere without drawing much attention.

21 minutes ago, nameless ronin said:

Eh. It's Strife. The whole game is supposed to be about samurai drama caused by Strife. Why should that be easy to deal with?

It is actually fairly easy to deal with, at least in my experience. A bit too easy if you ask me.

1 minute ago, AtoMaki said:

Reading travel journals should do it, the character can do that anywhere without drawing much attention.

It is actually fairly easy to deal with, at least in my experience. A bit too easy if you ask me.

Unmasking is possibly too easy/inconsequential, yes. But at least there is some kind of impact then, minimal as it may sometimes be. What you can do to get rid of Strife before Unmasking right now seems ok to me - but it definitely doesn't need to become easier, no.