When studying and learning, a Void approach allows a character to sense disturbances in their surroundings that would be imperceptible to most. This represents a character’s “sixth sense,” giving them hunches about supernatural phenomena and even future events.
Details
A Void approach to a Scholar skill is an attempt to look beyond worldly circumstances to see that physical appearances and even time are illusory. Sense, the Void approach to a Scholar skill, is rooted in an understanding that supernatural forces are at the root of the world and that what is yet to come is already written in what the viewer can observe now. It represents hunches and other seemingly supernatural hints a character might receive about a topic. It also allows a character to take a possibility they have already considered (such as by Recalling or Theorizing it) and determine how likely that eventuality is to occur.
A character uses Sense when they want to:
A character uses Sense when they want to:
- Rely on their instincts and hunches for information.
- Understand the spiritual ramifications of an action.
- Predict the likelihood of a particular outcome to a future event.
- Detect a supernatural presence or influence in their vicinity that would escape their earthly senses.
* |
If you failed, determine the easiest way to accomplish the task you were attempting (skill and approach). |
* + |
Remove 1 strife you gained from this check per * spent this way. |
* * |
Provide assistance to the next character to attempt a check to accomplish something similar |
* |
If you failed, provide assistance to the next character trying to accomplish the same action (p. 298 CRB) |
* |
Choose a ring other than Void. Reduce the TN of your next check by 1 if it uses that ring. |
* + |
Feel a chill down your spine, notice a sudden silence, or detect another sign of the supernatural if there is a spiritual disturbance in the scene. Extra * gives an increasingly precise location for the supernatural occurrence. |
* * |
Gain spiritual insight into the nature of the universe or your own heart. At the GM’s discretion, you may establish a fact about your character that has not been previously revealed but relates to the situation. |
* |
Intuit whether you can learn anything of value from your current course of inquiry. |
Scholar + Void Shuji Opportunities
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None
Special Circumstance Opportunities
In Shadowlands
** Though Jigoku’s power weighs heavily upon them, you are undeterred. By drawing on memories of the un-Tainted lands north of the wall, you can keep yourself focused and ignore all Strife results on your next check.
Against Tainted Threats
** or *** If the character spends**, they discern that the kami have fled, as well as the type of disturbance (mahō, kansen, or similar). If the character spends ***, they can also determine the total combat Military threat rating of all Tainted beings that caused the kami to flee.
While Tainted
**+ The unnatural insights of the kansen
voice themselves wordlessly to you, granting knowledge you could not
possibly have known otherwise. You learn something relevant to the
current situation, appropriate in scope to the number of * spent. For each * spent in this way, you receive 1 strife due to the unnatural means by which you gained this knowledge.
In Negotiations
*** You briefly shake someone’s conviction with a deep insight into their character or circumstances, causing them to speak without certainty. Until the end of your next turn, any momentum points they score are added to your current social objective instead of to their own.
In Romance
*** Due to circumstances beyond your control - a gust of wind or an earth tremor, perhaps -- you and your intended find yourselves unexpectedly aware of one another! Your intended decides what kind of contact it was, from a fateful meeting of the eyes to a brush of your hands against one another as you reach for a dropped scroll. They also decide how they react, although they will not blame you for anything untoward (after all, it wasn't your fault.)
In Espionage
* Your understanding of stealth clues you in on the possibility that you are not the first spy to pass this way. The GM reveals whether another spy has traversed your location and, if so, what trace they unwittingly left behind.
In Contested Territory
* * * You create a clever disguise or ruse to get the jump on potential foes. The next time you enter a conflict scene this session, after initiative has been determined, choose one character in the scene. On that character's next check, they must reroll all results containing non-explosive Success symbols.
* + In all things, one can find balance, even in a duel of words or blades. You and a hostile character of the GM's choice in the same scene each recover 2 strife for each * spent this way.
* * You find serenity amid adversity. You discover a neutral meeting place, protective legal precedent, or similar safe haven applicable to your situation.
* + In all things, one can find balance, even in a duel of words or blades. You and a hostile character of the GM's choice in the same scene each recover 2 strife for each * spent this way.
* * You find serenity amid adversity. You discover a neutral meeting place, protective legal precedent, or similar safe haven applicable to your situation.