Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

[X] Grasp deep, grasp with hunger. (50% chance of success, Gain +20 Physical Cultivation experience, +1 XP to want. On Failure, lose Gaol spiritual cultivation xp and ???)

[X] Grasp deep, grasp with hunger. (50% chance of success, Gain +20 Physical Cultivation experience, +1 XP to want. On Failure, lose Gaol spiritual cultivation xp and ???)
We stand to lose very little tbh, and this fits much more with Ling Qi's character

[X] Grasp carefully, and with great finesse (70% chance of Success. Normal Gaol benefits. +1 XP to motion, On Failure, lose Gaol Spiritual Cultivation, and ???)

[X] Grasp deep, grasp with hunger. (50% chance of success, Gain +20 Physical Cultivation experience, +1 XP to want. On Failure, lose Gaol spiritual cultivation xp and ???)

[X] Grasp deep, grasp with hunger. (50% chance of success, Gain +20 Physical Cultivation experience, +1 XP to want. On Failure, lose Gaol spiritual cultivation xp and ???)

[X] Grasp deep, grasp with hunger. (50% chance of success, Gain +20 Physical Cultivation experience, +1 XP to want. On Failure, lose Gaol spiritual cultivation xp and ???)

Saying that 'Motion is the part LQ enjoys' is very silly because LQ says right there that Want is "the seed of Community and Home". Saying she doesn't enjoy those is goofy. You can go basejumping and enjoy video games but it's a very different type of satisfaction from having a stable home situation or feeling accepted.

Want is more closely related to LQ's core concept of Isolation, so I would prefer to advance Want. Motion is how LQ achieves her goals, Want determines them.

[X] Grasp carefully, and with great finesse (70% chance of Success. Normal Gaol benefits. +1 XP to motion, On Failure, lose Gaol Spiritual Cultivation, and ???)

Like Spacegnom pointed out, getting Motion XP will push it to 3/5 so picking up one LFWT will bring it up to IV. Plus, LFWT is our only source of Motion XP, while Want has many other sources and will definitely be a part of FSS+ next turn.

TREE also gives Motion and we're cultivating it this turn so it fits narratively too. And practicing with finesse would definitely help in the long run. In fact, it'll mean we'll have more to show during Hostess Lessons later on.

And Skelunckle is supposed to be well, a friend who gives headpats and treats yet LQ is still hesitant around him, and she associates Motion with fun and joy and freedom, so picking the choice that advances the concept related to that means she'll treat it as a game and loosen up around him since this is a game to him too.

Plus, finesse is a huge part of Heists. You need hunger and want of course, but style and skill are what differentiates it from common banditry and robeery.

So checking some numbers on this and here's what I've found.

From a Cultivation Experience point of view if we take and succeed at the Grasp deep option we will get bonus 20 physical XP for the turn. Because we have not hit G5/B5 this turn that means the physical XP will get a x6 bonus from our talent and a x1.5 bonus for us meeting all the prerequisites for Framing(G5) totaling a 180 XP gain. What does that mean for us right now? Honestly not much, it doesn't push us past any break points or anything like that. What it does do however is put us to getting B6 a month earlier if we continue to gain XP at the rate we have been getting it (about 120xp a turn before multipliers). Granted that's a fair amount of speculation as we're about 10 months(in game) away from that and who knows what bonuses or detractions we might have between there but this seems like a fairly safe way to get some bonus XP. Not entirely safe as we could flop on the roll and who knows how much or what else we will lose from the ??? but I like our odds and I think a failure with Grasp deep is going to be more interesting than a failure with Grasp carefully.

From a Concept XP position taking Grasp carefully is actually probably the better option. As it's been pointed out we will currently be hitting Motion III (2/5) this turn with our current gains. Getting it to III (3/5) means we can take our last known Motion project in LFWT in a following turn and get it to Motion IV (0/8) as long as we double the XP from it that turn. Now we do have 4 projects that we currently know that advance Want but those projects are in UGM, Soul of Ice (previously part of UGM), BKSD, and WHR. We are probably unlikely to take all 4 of those, I know one of them a lot of people don't really care for at least. At most I think we would take the BKSD and Soul of Ice ones which will get us to Want III (4/5). Will we get more projects with Want in them? Most likely. LFWT has given us Want before and FSS was originally an Endings, Want, Isolation technique so it would be surprising if the successor didn't touch on those at least. So Motion is probably the more valuable Concept XP at this time.

Now on a more narrative level I've seen people refer to Grasp deep as a sort of smash and grab instead of a skillful finesse. This whole cultivation 'game' with Huisheng is all about skill and subtlety. Will we do it with less finesse if we do deeply? Certainly but we will have to be more skillful about it, that's why it's the harder check. Grasp carefully is just that, careful. It's the difference between skimming a bit off the top to get what we need and maybe a bit more in doing so. I think it's comparable to cutting someone's purse (Grasp carefully) and stealing the jewelry from off their person (Grasp deep). One's harder but man is it cool if you pull it off.

[X] Grasp carefully, and with great finesse (70% chance of Success. Normal Gaol benefits. +1 XP to motion, On Failure, lose Gaol Spiritual Cultivation, and ???)

ApeofLight said:

Certainly but we will have to be more skillful about it, that's why it's the harder check.

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That doesn't follow. Plenty of very difficult things require very little skill. Luck or capability can also play a role. For instance I can't pull a semi trailer by myself and the people who can aren't doing so because they have better technique than me (though they probably have that as well). They are just stronger than I will ever be. Similarly making money in roulette by betting on a particular pocket is extremely difficult but skill doesn't enter into it.

I'm relatively new to technical aspects of the quest and while I've read the introductions, I would appreciate if resident luminaries could clarify a few things for me. I know concepts are important for insights and narrative but do they affect technical side outside art/domain effectiveness? How does the level of the concept change it? What is the end goal we wish to achieve concept wise before reaching cyan? I humbly thank thee in advance.

Redoran said:

I'm relatively new to technical aspects of the quest and while I've read the introductions, I would appreciate if resident luminaries could clarify a few things for me. I know concepts are important for insights and narrative but do they affect technical side outside art/domain effectiveness? How does the level of the concept change it? What is the end goal we wish to achieve concept wise before reaching cyan? I humbly thank thee in advance.

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We need 60 concept levels to advance to cyan and the higher a concept is the more oomph it has when used in an art. For instance if we are using an art to isolate a commander from his soldiers our isolation concept needs to be higher than his community concept or else we are gonna have a really hard time doing that.

JohnnieBoy123 said:

That doesn't follow. Plenty of very difficult things require very little skill. Luck or capability can also play a role. For instance I can't pull a semi trailer by myself and the people who can aren't doing so because they have better technique than me (though they probably have that as well). They are just stronger than I will ever be. Similarly making money in roulette by betting on a particular pocket is extremely difficult but skill doesn't enter into it.

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Okay but that has nothing to with this? Either one we choose it's the same action we are just changing how exactly we are doing it. For a sports analogy this is us choosing to try and make a shot at the 2 point line versus the 3 point line. It's the same action, make a basket, just the difficulty and rewards are changed. In-universe this is a game of skill not luck. Is luck a part of it? Yes but it falls much closer to an all skill challenge than it does luck.

[X] Grasp carefully, and with great finesse (70% chance of Success. Normal Gaol benefits. +1 XP to motion, On Failure, lose Gaol Spiritual Cultivation, and ???)

[X] Grasp deep, grasp with hunger. (50% chance of success, Gain +20 Physical Cultivation experience, +1 XP to want. On Failure, lose Gaol spiritual cultivation xp and ???)

Not a huge fan of skeleton dude, as i see it it's a win no matter what we roll.