Entropy rates across editions

Entropy is the degeneration in which points from the Black Moon-Ka and Black Moon Pool spontaneously evaporate over time. The exact rates vary between editions, and I share these numbers here for GMs to chose for the desired level of bookkeeping for their campaigns.

In first and second editions the Selenim’s Entropy rate was 1d3 points per lunar month (28 days), the Living Dead’s Entropy rate was 1d4 points per year, and the Restless’ Entropy rate was 1d6 points per year.

In third edition the Selenim’s Entropy rate was 1 point per night at midnight (doubled under a full or new moon), the Living Dead’s Entropy rate was 1 point per night, and the Restless’ Entropy rate was 1 point every 6 hours (though a spell could reduce this to 1 point per night).

The rate of Entropy is doubled under a full or new moon. As I noted in my post on Black Moon plexi, the rate of Entropy is adjusted by the local strength of the doomed field.

This has corresponding consequences for Assuaging and Solar-Ka recovery. 

In first and second edition Solar-Ka recovered at a rate of 1 point per month. For comparison, Ka-elements healed temporary damage at a rate of 1 point per week on the next day corresponding to that element.

In third edition, Solar-Ka recovered at the rate of 1 point per hour. In my prior post on Assuaging, I represented this via the option for Selenim to siphon Ch’awe instead of Solar-Ka. Ch’awe did not exist in the French version but was added in the US version.

In both cases, Selenim generally couldn’t Assuage the same person repeatedly until their Solar-Ka recovered. In 1st and 2nd edition, the Selenim could attempt to do so once every following day, but this only ever drained 1 point and caused mental illness in both the victim and the Selenim: the victim developed schizophrenia as a defense mechanism (explaining the 1 point limit) and the Selenim stole random memories that couldn't integrate into its Simulacrum's brain and so drove it mad. In 3rd edition, it was simply impossible to attempt.

I’m not quite a fan of the third edition rates because they increase bookkeeping, demand Selenim PC’s spend an average of two hours per day in-game time Assuaging, and make it feasible for a Selenim to survive for some time by Assuaging a single person because Solar-Ka regenerates >20 times faster than the Selenim’s Entropy depletes her pool. But the multi-month limitation on repeated Assuaging in second edition was ridiculous because it made Assuaging a blood cult’s worship infeasible!

Black Summonings all had varying Entropy rates, but for the sake of simplicity I decided to use the same format for durations as Nephilim’s Summoning. I’ll include posts on Black Summonings as part of my adaptation of Summoning to the enlightened magic rules.

ASIDE: All spirits experience some form of Entropy due to the inherent weaknesses of the magic fields caused by the First and Second Falls. Curiously, Entropy only occurs on Earth and not other planes. Elemental beasts and black summons alike require concentrated sources of the appropriate Ka to sustain themselves. Ghosts steadily evaporate Solar-Ka over time and have no way to replenish it, barring the rare predatory ghosts. Nephilim and Ar-Kaïm are stabilized by their Solar-Ka. Selenim continue to suffer Entropy while incarnated and must survive by Assuaging the Solar-Ka/Ch’awe of mortals. Why Selenim experience Entropy but Ar-Kaïm do not is a topic of much interest to The Unnamed…

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