Ha! I'm awake at 6am and can't get to sleep, and now you're all going to suffer for it! Mwahahaahaha! Well, whether or not it's suffering is open to debate. But here's an amaglam of confused thoughts on Karma and magics. Instead of what's up under FSStats, let Karma have the subattributes Threading, Channeling, and Fortune. Fortune works as in normal Feng Shui, fortune pool and all. I think this is "use your current fortune points as your fortune stat" and "you can refresh your fotune points once per session." Channeling fills the roll of Fu--it refreshes every sequence, and refresents you ability to harness and focus magical energies through your body and spirit so they can be shaped for an effect. Good for martial arts and directing all forms of magical energy. Cyberware schticks tend to cause issues for good magic flow, and there's almost certainly a penalty to Channeling based on # of cyberware schticks. Threading is like the Magic stat, and has a pool that refreshes...each day, like in High Fantasy Feng Shui? It represents your grasp of threads, your basic ability to exploit them, and possibly how much Thread Energy you can hold. Thread points (working name) can be spent to fuel a number of effects, to make Blasts and the like area effect, for enchanting, and to add +1 per to a single Threadmagic-based roll (including those that are skill rolls on something based on Threadmagic). This sounds an awfully lot like the things karma was used for in old ED, and I expect it to be a major player in most adept schticks (not just for spellcasters). The +1 to a Thread-based roll is kind of wierd, and may be tossed. There's no such thing as a general, ED-style Karma point here, the roll is taken over by a combination of Thread points and Fortune points. Fortune points often fuel Pulp schicks and Thread points magic/adept schticks, but it's possible that these are generalized for Adepts, or at least that their Thread points may be spent as Fortune points as well, for a nice, general "karma" feel. OK. So that's there. Channeling and Threading are kind of wierd, but have a basic sort of ground in how the world works...Channeling is dealing with magical energies, Threading dealing with threads. Channeling Effects Creature Powers, where they exist, are almost certainly based on Channeling. I don't know if any require the spending of magic points (oops, no magic points for Channeling), but if they do, they might require something else, like fortune points or taking wounds instead...call that Drain. Intuitive magic is also based on channeling. Anything that would require a magic point instead causes Drain. Chanelling probably also limits how cool a stunt you can do with your magic, if this becomes necessary--spellcasting is a 3-shot action, generally, adn you'll run out of time before you run out of Channeling power. But then, I would think this about Fu schticks too, and there are definitely some spells that have variable energy costs (manabolt comes to mind--a blast effect with extra damage for more Channeling?). Basic benchmarks can be set, and probably should for the rare cases when Fu and Sorcery share a body. Intuitive Magic is limited by tradition. Choice of spheres should be appropriate to tradition, but there are also additional problem effects, like those detailed at T3. Physiads also use channeling for their Fu schticks, almost none of which cause Drain. Some physads may pick up an Intuitive magic schtick or two if they learn the Sorcery skill, but need access to sorcery schticks somehow to use that, just like a sorcerer would somehow need to get access to Fu schticks for physad powers. Drain Drain is probably "take damage equal to a function 'k' ,will, and/or constitution, (+d6 -d6)" where 'k' is some constant based on how nasty drain should be. Substitue charisma for will if it's summoning drain. "Bracing for Drain" might be possible, a +1 shot action that gives you a +3 to resist the drain. Mages just record how many wounds they take from drain on their charsheet for simplicity. Thread magic Thread magic is mosly used by adepts, and possibly some kinds of artificers? This might actually use the same general Sorcery skill as Intuitive magic, but based off Threading instead (so an Intuitive mage might be able to at least comprehend threads with a sufficiently disgusting skill level, since a roll is suddenly based on a substat of 0). You must buy your threaded spheres separately form your intuitive spheres, if you have both, but they're functionally identical. All thread mages pretty much have the same tradition: using effects not in a matrix causes Taint, and matricies are shticks you have to buy. If "spells" have a basic Channeling cost from above, that comes over here as well, and we can do something neat to represent skew: your matricies have, net, a Channeling rating equal to twice your schtick picks in Spell Matrix (in addition to each one being able to hold a single sorcery effect). Horrors or bad astral space increases the Channeling cost of all spells cast in matricies, and the Taint gained from casting outside of matricies. This means mages can continue to act, but tainted astral space causes them to be able to cast less often, and larger spells may require multiple sequences--or you can eat the Taint. Also, you could probably spend Thread points to negate one level of astral space corruption. Magic items would have a Channeling rating, but it doesn't refresh without work, and cool ones might be able to hold Thread (i.e. karma) points. True Elements probably hold a number of Thread points. Other Threading Thingies Non namegivers can never have a Threading rating bigger than zero. Nonadepts with a Threading rating above zero are kinda wierd, and I can't think of anyone who'd have Threading without having a general Karma stat as well--Adepts have Karma and Threadmagic, magical creatures, physads, and intuitive mages may have just Channeling stat without general Karma, and wacked-out luckmeisters and daredevils might have just Fortune. Threading is probably the base for lots of Adepts schticks--"spend a thread point and add your threading rating to such-and-such" is a fairly common discipline thing. Adepts might even have an equivalent to Creature Powers, "Adept Powers," which is based off of Threading, and use creature schticks for some tallents. Mana Level The mana level might affect Channeling costs as well as AV modifiers and whatever else. If that is the case, the implication for the metaphysics in that Channeling is how much astral space you can pull through you, and high mana areas have better energy density, rather than Channeling just being how much energy you can pull. Extra $.02 with a separate channeling cost and AV modifiers, you can get the dichotomy of effects that include those that are difficult but require little energy (small, intricate illusions) and those that are easy but take a lot of power (blinding lights, other brute force things), at least to some degree. OK, that's it. The ravings of my deranged mind on the topic of magic. It might be easier on players to just call Thread points Karma instead, even though it's not based on the Karma attribute, and just say Threading controlls how much karma energy you can hold in your pattern, refreshed by your karma ritual. Eh. I've said enough.--zebediah