Meditation

Secondary Abilities

Classification: Skill

Description:You are able to enter a trance-like state at will, focusing your mind inward and dealing with a range of mental and physical problems. A successful Meditation roll (Instinct/Self-Control + Meditation = 7) is neccesary to enter this state; after each full hour, the character rolls Meditation (Instinct/Self-Control + Meditation = 9). Dice from the character's Dice Pool are subtracted if there are any distractions during this time. Each success on the second roll restores one point of Willpower; each botch result indicates that a Willpower point is lost. If the meditation is interrupted and concentraration is lost before the hour is up, no benefits are gained.

• Novice: You read a book on it once.

• • Practiced: You are a serious student.

• • • Competent: You have studied under a master.

• • • • Expert: You are a qualified to teach.

• • • • • Master: Just that.

Possessed By: Yogis, sorcerers, CEOs, just about anyone.

Specialties: Yogic

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Ground, center, breathe, and relax. This Skill helps you sweep aside the clutter of everyday existence and find a spot within yourself that offers calm. Depending on your preferred style, your background, and the purpose for which you practice meditation, this could involve simple quiet time, elaborate postures and breath control, religious devotion, and even ecstatic dance or prayer.

In game terms, the Meditation Skill can help your character make up for lost sleep, hibernate, gain artistic or mystical insights, unravel patterns or enigmas, or refresh your Quintessence rating (see the Avatar and Quintessence Trait entries later in this chapter).

A character with Meditation often has at least one dot in the Esoterica Knowledge Trait. Many forms of magick, or feats like astral travel, also use meditation as an instrument of focus – see Chapter Ten, (pp. 594-596), for details.

• -- Novice: You can ground and center for short periods of time.

•• -- Practiced: Regular practice has deepened and extended your abilities.

••• -- Skillful: Even under distracting conditions, you know how to find your center.

•••• -- Expert: “Use the Force, Luke...”

••••• -- Master: An island of calm is yours whenever you want or need it.

Possessed By: Akashics, Yogis, Monks, Hypnotists, Therapists, Clergy, Martial Artists, Hippies

Suggested Specialties: Zen, Yoga, Do, Trance, Nodes, Relaxation, Therapy, Tantra, T’ai Chi, Virtual Reality, Focus, Meditative Movement, Grace Under Pressure