Mental Blast Optional Rule from APG 1

[Thumper]

Hey Steve,

 

I'm considering using the optional Mental Blast damage found on page 106 of the Advanced Player's Guide, wherein Mental Blast deals EGO damage equal to the BODY rolled.

 

My question is how would a character recover this lost EGO?  BODY damage would recover at a rate of REC/month, but it seems off to tie EGO recovery to REC, which is so clearly a "physical" characteristic -- it seems a little ridiculous to suggest that a Hippopotamus (EGO 5, REC 12) would recover from a mental battering faster than a Succubus (EGO 20, REC 6).  What would you recommend?

 

Also, as a follow up, should a character reduced to their own EGO in negatives die in the same way a character reduced to their BODY in negative?

[Steve Long]

Good questions both!

 

Re: Recovering lost EGO, you have two options:  use REC just like you would with BODY (I don’t necessarily think this is ridiculous, but to each his own ); or create a new Characteristic, Mental Recovery (MREC). Characters start out with 4 MREC, and buying more costs 1 Character Point per point.

 

Being reduced to negative EGO doesn’t kill the character — it just leaves him with so little willpower that he has a hard time doing anything. Use the rules for 0 EGO on 6E1 44 to determine what happens.

 

Good luck with your campaign!