Greetings unto you, Hidden Masters of TSoY!

I'm tinkering with a campaign idea for TSoY, and I'm having a little trouble with the Transcendence mechanic. I get the concept and game function of Transcendence, and it jives well with the slew of buddhist-ish (or at least vaguely Oriental) elements of Near, and I'm also well aware of previous (http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=14087.0) discussions on the topic. I just don't like that the best strategy for conflict succes takes your character out of the game. Oh, and that Trancendence is necessarily linkes to being the world's best damn swordsman/sorcerer/demagogue/pastry chef, but that's another story.

Anyhow, I came up with an idea for a house rule to control Transcendence, The Secret of the Grand Master. In order to attain Grand Mastery of any skill, you must learn the Secret of the Grand Master (swordsman / sorcerer / demagogue / pastry chef). This means that you have to climb some high mountain to find the wise old one to teach you the final wisdom of ultimate pastry chef mastery, who will also tell you, right there in the game, that if you become a Grand Master, you can no longer use your skill without far-reaching cosmic consequences.

Grand Mastery becomes one advance more expensive, you get a cool quest to do in the game, and the character-ending nature of Grand Mastery is foreshadowed and put into words in the game. So, is this cool, or am I just being finicky?

Yours, Troels

Troels,

That doesn't sound game-breaking, and if you like it, go for it.

If you haven't played a game to Transcendence, then I recommend not worrying about it being a big deal. You have to plan: it takes 4 advances, which means you'll have to save for it. It's hard to make happen, and no one does it accidentally.

The game does have a Secret (of the Bodhisavatta) for those who have achieved near-perfection but wish to stay chained to the earth.

- Clinton